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A Tractor Tradition

Tractor Day is a rite of passage for Lincoln County FFA

A Tractor Tradition

For many Lincoln County FFA members, the early-morning drive is the best part of participating in tractor day. Some leave home as early as 4 a.m.



November 2007

Summer vacation is still several months away, and it’s not even the Friday before spring break. But the chilly Friday in February that concludes National FFA Week is the best day of the year for many FFA members in Lincoln County, Tenn.

That’s because it’s time for the highly anticipated Tractor Day – a 28-year-old tradition at Lincoln County High School in Fayetteville, Tenn., where FFA members rise before dawn, bundle up in their Carhartt overalls and rev up the engines on their tractors.

Then they drive them all the way to school.

“I left my house at 4:30 this morning and got here at 6,” says Samantha Cobb, who served as the 2006-07 chapter vice president, on the 2007 Tractor Day. “My tractor goes up to 18.5 miles per hour.”

Cobb, now a graduate, drove her family’s tractor in Tractor Day all four years of high school.

“My first year, my dad insisted on riding with me, and I almost ran over a cameraman,” she recalls with a giggle. “But I’ve gotten a lot better.”

With more than 50 tractors congregating in the school parking lot, Tractor Day creates quite a spectacle. So big, in fact, that television, radio and print media come to cover the event.

The commotion starts around 6 a.m., when tractors in shades of red, orange, green and even blue start appearing in the school parking lot. At 6:45, they line up and parade onto the highway in front of the school, winding around the building and returning to the parking lot. A record 55 tractors paraded in the 2007 Tractor Day.

“The kids think it’s great,” says Dawn Malone, Lincoln County FFA advisor. “The police even stop traffic for them on the highway.”

A country breakfast in the school’s agriculture shop, sponsored by local tractor dealerships, follows the tractor parade, where the students feast on biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, country ham, sausage and hash browns. Teachers, staff members, school board members and the superintendent of schools are invited to the breakfast as a thank-you for supporting FFA; parents and grandparents also attend.

After breakfast, cash prizes are awarded for the oldest and newest tractors, the most and least hours driven on a tractor, the dirtiest and cleanest tractors, the most and least horsepower, the student who drove their tractor the farthest, and the student with the most FFA spirit.

“Tractor Day is important, because it gives the kids a chance to show off something they do every day,” says Jennifer Snoddy, Lincoln County FFA advisor. “Eighty percent of our students are at least two generations off the farm, and that makes it special.”

The tractors in the school parking lot range from old antiques to brand-new just off the dealership lot.

“Many of the kids have fathers and mothers, aunts and uncles, and older sisters and brothers who have driven in Tractor Day,” Malone says. “It’s something that’s unique to Lincoln County, and the kids look forward to it all year. The school athletes have their days to shine, and this is a day for FFA members.”

The Tractor Day tradition was started in 1980 by Stan Golden, former superintendent of schools in Lincoln County, and Tim Redd, director of farm laboratories at Middle Tennessee State University, when both were teachers and FFA advisors at Lincoln County High School.

“We wanted to stimulate interest in the agriculture program, and this is a real ag community,” Golden says. “The first year, we had 10 or 11 tractors and a couple of mules. We never anticipated it would grow this big.”

Nearly 30 years later, Tractor Day is a total community effort.

“The best part is that the community realizes even high school kids can be involved in agriculture,” Cobb says. “This lets the community see the agricultural future.”

Of the 1,200 students at Lincoln County High School, some 200 are FFA members. But Tractor Day is an educational opportunity even for students who aren’t involved in agriculture. During scheduled times throughout the school day, teachers bring students out to the parking lot to see the tractors, and they are given a list of interesting agricultural facts to share with the students.

Tractor Day has proved to be an effective recruiting tool for Lincoln County’s FFA chapter.

“I’ve had students tell me the reason they joined FFA was because of Tractor Day, and one of them later became state FFA president,” Golden says. “You never know what little things can make a big difference in someone’s life.”

Senior Marlayna Pepper loves participating in Tractor Day simply because “it’s something different.”

“It’s a lot of fun, because it gets us out of school for a little while, and all of us get to eat breakfast together,” she says. “And it’s not every day you see a long line of tractors driving to school.”

Story by Jessica Mozo


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