Ryatt Haggerman, Versailles

SECRETARY 2025-26

For my SAE, I work for a local lumber yard in my hometown called “Carpenter Guenther Lumber Company” in the area of Agriculture Sales – Placement. Throughout my SAE, I have worked as a product sales representative, working with customers to recommend products and solutions to problems they might have. Before this SAE, I also owned my own small blacksmithing business in the area of Agricultural Mechanics Design and Fabrication – Ownership where I worked with my father planning and constructing different types of metal products using my blacksmithing forge. 

The Missouri FFA state officers who I had the opportunity to meet during my time in the FFA helped set the foundations for me to begin believing in myself. They saw things in me that I had never thought I could achieve. The reason I wanted to become a Missouri FFA State Officer was to have the chance to help FFA members just as the past state officers helped me. To be able to have the opportunity to help an FFA member see things in themselves that otherwise they never would have. That was what has kept me going throughout my time in the FFA, and it is my “why” for wanting to serve as a Missouri FFA State Officer.

The legacy I want to leave throughout my year of service is a legacy that shows Missouri FFA members that state officers are everyday people just like them. I remember attending my first-ever State Convention as a freshman in high school and thinking I could never be one of the state officers standing on the state stage. During the four years of my FFA career, I have had the opportunity to meet with state officers on multiple occasions. At each of these meetings, I remember thinking that these officers were better than me and that I couldn’t ever dream of being one of them. In my year of service, I want to show Missouri FFA members that state officers are people just like them, and that anybody can become a state officer if they put forth the dedication to do so.

Beginning this fall, I will start attending Northwest Missouri State University to pursue a degree in agricultural education. After receiving my bachelor’s in agricultural education, I plan to return to the central district and begin teaching around my hometown of Versailles. Within my first five years of teaching, I hope to begin working on obtaining my master’s degree in the area of conservation of natural resources. As an agricultural educator, my goal is to help build upon the chapter I grew up in, and to do my part in helping to grow the next generation of leaders who will change the world.

One thing that a lot of people don’t know about me is that I went through five years of speech therapy as a kid. I think it’s kind of ironic to think that I’m a competitive speaker, yet had to go through speech therapy to be able to pronounce words correctly. Even with the five years of therapy, I still slip up sometimes.

The number one piece of advice I can offer to FFA members is to take a chance on themselves. For my first years of FFA, I never believed I could achieve the things I have today. It was only when I started to take chances on myself that I began to see the amazing things I could accomplish. Throughout my year of service as an FFA state officer, my goal is to help inspire FFA members to start taking the chance on themselves and continue betting on themselves no matter what happens.