The Fannin Soil and Water Conservation District announced Clint Minnick, Sam Rayburn Agricultural, Science and FFA teacher as it’s Teacher of the Year.
Minnick also received the Conservation Teacher Award for the Area V of the Texas State Soil & Water Conservation Contests.
Minnick has a long history supporting the teaching and understanding of the agricultural world.
Throughout his education, he participated in many contests such as Range/Plan ID, Wildlife Evaluation, Livestock Judging and Horse Evaluation. After graduating Cum Laude from TAMU-Commerce, he pursued a career in teaching young individuals the basics of agriculture.
He began his teaching career in 2005 at Bonham High School. In 2015, he had the opportunity to head the Sam Rayburn Agricultural Department. In this role, he leads students in many facets of agriculture. From mechanics and fabrication, livestock projects, numerous judging teams, and has had multiple FFA members at the state and national conventions.
“Minnick reached out to the Fannin SWCD for assistance in promoting a better learning experience by demonstrating and facilitating a rotational grazing program that incorporates a pest management program. This pest management program helps return the schools districts 100 acres to a manageable state as the property was previously advancing quickly through the early successional stages and trending to a heavily wooded state. By utilizing funds from the Fannin SWCD, Clint will be better able to demonstrate real world factors and decision making to his students and how those decisions and actions affect the landscape around them. Incorporating both a rotational grazing system and pest management program gives his students an edge in learning that many other programs cannot,” said Fannin SWCD.
The cattle operation at Sam Rayburn promotes proper grazing techniques, rotational grazing, and diversity of vegetation. Teaching the many aspects of grazing (other than how many animal units can be grazed) like diversified vegetation for use in warm and cool seasons, utilizing forbs and legumes, and allowing for regeneration to occue with limited grazing pressure can facilitate soil health and rejuvenation. This is an important tool that Clint can use to teach students on how grazing can impact the environment both positively and negatively.
“The Fannin SWCD is proud of all our agricultural teachers in Fannin County, and if they have a project that needs funding, please contact us at fannincounty@swcd.texas.gov.”