10/13/06 Farm kid wants to be ag teacher

Nick Ysabel is a senior at the University of Idaho but he's spent most of his summers working on the farm. Nick grew up on what was sagebrush covered land cleared by his great-grandfather who came from Spain to Marsing in Owyhee County. YSABEL "We have corn, hay, barley and wheat, 600 acres total." Ysabel, a member of Farm Bureau's Young Farmers and Ranchers, wants to use his farm knowledge in the classroom when he gets his teaching degree. YSABEL "Teaching ag education at the high school level. There are still students out there that are interested in ag whether it is the welding part, or mechanics or crops or livestock." He's a born teacher, a hard worker and an expert at setting irrigation tubes. YSABEL "This is what we used to do, we called it the drowning method. Put the tube in the ditch and then we just wait till it fills up and then pull it out and it's set. And then we kind of moved on so we could be a little faster. And you can either pump it a few times or you can just pull it out like this and set it." Ysabel believes there has to be a balance between the rapid growth of Southwestern Idaho and farmers who have been raising crops on that same land for decades. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott