Brooke Rollins has officially become the next Secretary of Agriculture, with plenty to do already.

The 44th annual Tennessee FFA Legislative Breakfast was held yesterday at the capitol, as the state officers have been traveling on their Good Will tour as part of National FFA week.

Celebrating National FFA Week across Tennessee as the state officers have been on their annual Goodwill Tour sharing the incredible success of this important youth organization.

The 114th Tennessee General Assembly is off and running at our state’s capitol as lawmakers discuss and debate issues that could become law.  And they do that through the committee process and this session finds Shane Reeves of Murfreesboro chairing the Senate’s Energy, Agriculture and Natural Resources committee.

Over the weekend, areas in Obion and Gibson counties and beyond were hit with a lot of rainfall on areas already saturated from previous rains causing the Obion River and tributaries to spill out of their banks and flood a wide area of mostly rural farmland.

Those blue jackets are celebrating this week during National FFA Week.  Members of the state officer team will be traveling the state on their Goodwill Tour, visiting with FFA members, supporters and sponsors.

Gov. Bill Lee’s proposed budget for this next year includes $92 million dollars that would help revitalize and equip six youth education camps across the state.

Planting season is just around the corner and cotton growers are already preparing. Many cotton farmers gathered at the West Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center earlier this week for the annual Cotton Focus meeting. Experts gave an outlook on what the upcoming growing season might look like from a price standpoint, and gave an outline of ways to cut down on input expenses.

Gov. Bill Lee in his state of the state address this week reiterated his desire for the Tennessee General Assembly to approve a farmland conservation act to help fight the loss of productive farmland across the state.

More than 250 FFA and 4-H kids recently attended UT Ag Night. The students got to tour Neyland Stadium, listen to a career panel on potential careers in agriculture, and attend the UT men’s basketball game against Missouri.