VIDALIA &8212; If the FFA at Monterey High School is any indication, there are still some young people interested in going into agricultural careers.

FFA, a national high school organization promoting agriculture careers, is helping prepare a new generation of farmers, ranchers, wildlife biologists, animal scientists and some of the other 300 careers FFA says are agriculture-related.

Agriculture education is still going strong at Monterey School. Students can start taking ag classes when they&8217;re in the elementary grades and continue all the way to graduation.

&8220;The No. 1 problem in agriculture today is a lack of skilled workers,&8221; Monterey agriculture teacher Tammy Faulkner said. &8220;One of the reasons we have ag education is to promote interest in agriculture, even in city kids.&8221;

Classes span the breadth of agriculture fields, from wildlife to mechanics and landscape design to animal science. A greenhouse will soon be in place to serve as a horticulture lab for the program.

The FFA at Monterey is an active one, attending the state and national FFA conventions and working throughout the year on projects from welding &8212; one student is making a pig trap &8212; to woodworking projects and raising animals and crops.

Nationally, FFA has 500,000 members, making it the largest student-run organization in the world. But even those numbers may not be enough to keep some agriculture going, locals fear.

Part of the trouble for farming is that there is such a wide variety of careers in agriculture to choose from. Even students interested in a career in agriculture aren&8217;t likely to be looking to go into farming, Faulkner said.

Today&8217;s agriculture students aren&8217;t just studying cotton or cattle &8212; sows, cows and plows, as the saying goes &8212; they&8217;re in many fields.

&8220;People think it&8217;s just about farming,&8221; Monterey Ag student Jeff Taylor said. &8220;I don&8217;t farm. I live on a farm, but farming is not a big issue for me. I want to go into wildlife biology. That&8217;s what interests me.&8221;

Out of six of the Monterey chapter&8217;s most active members, there are five different career goals.

Seniors Brock Wesberry and Taylor want to go into wildlife biology. Both volunteer at Bayou Cocodrie National Wildlife Refuge, teaching about the refuge and its inhabitants.

Junior Gina Chandler wants to be an Ag teacher. She&8217;s worked closely with Faulkner, even during the summer, and helps teach some of the younger students at Monterey.

Landon White, also a junior, wants to take over the farm his family runs, growing crops and raising cattle.

Jonathan Lipsey, a sophomore, isn&8217;t sure what he wants to do, but it will be in agriculture. And eighth-grader Ethan Cannon likes to speak, so much so that he wants to be an judge in Ag competitions.

FFA and other local groups like 4-H and agencies like the LSU AgCenter and Bayou Cocodrie National Wildlife Refuge have given the students opportunities to start in their field of choice.

&8220;With some fields, you have to experience it,&8221; Wesberry said. &8220;You have to get it inside you.&8221;

But all of them said they will go to college first to get degrees in their field of choice.

&8220;It used to be a lot of kids went straight from high school to the farm,&8221; Monterey High School Principal Neeva Sibley said. &8220;But more and more, we see kids will go get a degree in agriculture or animal science and then come back. Farming is so specialized it takes that these days.&8221;