Cade Shepherd, Vice President

VP 2020-2021

Diversified Livestock Production, Ag Services, Poultry Production

I always tell people that I have a unique motivation to run for a state FFA office. The first part of that is I love talking to people and meeting new members. That was the first driving passion for me to pursue a state FFA office. The second piece of that motivation is that when I tell people how long I have been involved in FFA instead of saying 4 or 5 years, I tell them I have been a passionate member for 18 years! Then I begin to explain that I have grown up around FFA and the agriculture industry my whole life. My father has been an agriculture educator for 21 years and my uncle has also been an ag teacher for 16 years. I have an overwhelming amount of memories of running around various contests with my father and trying to be cool around the FFA members. That is why I have this driving passion for this organization and its members. The agriculture industry has done so much for my family and I want to do my part in giving back.

My heroes are my mom and dad. I don’t know where I would be without their advice—even though sometimes we have our differences of opinion. There are so many times that I have needed guidance in so many different forms and fashions, and they have delivered on that guidance.

My future plans are for me to attend Crowder College and pursue a degree in ag education and then finish my degree at a four year university. My goal is to become an ag teacher and educate the future of America. I want to be able to do this while working off of my grandpa’s 1,600-acre crop farm in Vernon County, Missouri.

Something unique people don’t know about me is that I have a deep appreciation for history. When I was five-years-old my great grandfather had the honor of babysitting me for a day. When I woke up from my nap, he told me we weren’t going to watch any cartoons but instead we were going to watch the history channel so it could teach me something! Little did I know that my Grandpa Ewing set me up with a life skill that is so important—understanding and researching the value of history.

Some advice that I would give FFA members is to just simply keep on truckin as my family says it. The reason I say that is because life is not going the way you planned it. That’s just a fact. For example, look at how the COVID-19 pandemic affected our State FFA Convention. Despite the setbacks, state staff and past state officers weathered the storm. If you get down in school, FFA or just life in general, always remember you have to get back up.  No matter how hard that might be, you need to get back up because if you don’t life is just gonna roll right over you.