Aubrie Baker stands in a greenhouse and gives an interview. Text on the bottom left reads, Aubrie Baker. Plant systems SAE. Lubbock Copper FFA, Texas. Later, in the greenhouse, Aubrie cuts some leaves off a plant using a cutter, arranges the plants in a small soil tray, and plants some plants in the small pots in a tray.
My name is Aubrie Baker. I go to Lubbock Cooper, and it’s in Texas. I am part of the Lubbock Cooper FFA program.
Succulent plants in a pot appear followed by young succulent plants in different stages of growth on a small soil tray.
My SAE is plant science, and I have been growing succulents, and I’ve been trying to decide which way they grow the best; if they grow better on top of soil, in the soil, like fully submerged, or just a little bit submerged. And we decided that they grow best fully submerged. It takes them a little bit longer, but they grow the best, the most healthy. And we actually learned that succulents like shade and that they like a lot of water and not just a little water.
Aubrie plants a baby succulent plant in a small pot. Later, the visual of Aubrie standing and giving an interview reappears.
I got started with this SAE because my succulents at home that I had on my porch blew over in one of our haboobs, and the leaves had fallen off, which, when a leaf falls off, they grow a new plant, and they start rooting from the new plant. Well, I had no idea that that happened. And when I walked outside, I had little baby succulents all over the floor. And I took it to my ag. teacher, and I was like, this is really cool! What can we do with this? He was like, well, we can grow succulents, and we can sell them at the end of the year. And so, we did a Valentine’s sale and put some cute little flags in there with little sayings and sold them to teachers and students for Valentine’s Day.
Aubrie removes the hairs from the body of a pig using a hairbrush, followed by a person drilling on a piece of wood. Later, the visual of Aubrie standing and giving an interview reappears. Back-to-back clips of flowering plants appear. The flowers are pink in color followed by the next plant whose flowers are white in color.
No, SAEs are nowhere near the same. Do you like animals? Do you like plants? Do you like soil conservation? Do you like--I don’t know, there’s, you have to know what you kind of like. And if you don’t know, that’s okay, because there are so many. And you could just pick one one year and say, well, this one didn’t work for me, let’s try a different one. But if you know what you want in mind, let’s say plants, for example, there are so many plants, so many ideas that you come up with. What type of soil works best for our Portulacas around us? What type of sunlight works best for cotton?
Back-to-back clips of people planting and arranging the plants in trays in the greenhouse appear. Later, the visual of Aubrie standing and giving an interview reappears.
So, it’s just, it’s overwhelming in the beginning, but if you know what you like and what you want to do, just go for it. Just try it. It’s fun. And if you don’t like it, then you have another year. Or if you don’t have another year, then you know what you don’t like for the future.
Aubrie speaks, followed by a person planting a plant in a small pot, dumping soil in it.
It is complicated, some ways, to start an SAE for many reasons. But in the whole grand span of it, it’s not that hard and not that complicated. Because if you have amazing ag. teachers, they help you and guide you all the way through it. And you just have to know what your timeframe is and what it looks like to budget. For me, for example, for the greenhouse, since I am in the class, it was no expense to me. And since I did start with my own succulents from my house, it was no expense. So, that was really great.
Aubrie takes the waste from the soil in a pot in the greenhouse. Later, succulent plants placed in pots in a tray appear, followed by Aubrie standing and giving an interview.
You do not need to know anything about agriculture to start an SAE because as long as you want to do something within the agricultural industry, you really don’t need to know anything about it. You step outside, and you’re in agriculture. So, if you find a pebble, and you think, well, where did this pebble come from? You have an SAE project. You don’t need to know anything about it. You just need to know--you really don’t even need to know anything. You just want to have a question. If you have a question, you can have an SAE project.
A poster titled 'Ag Texas, AgYouth of the Month, Aubrie Baker' appears. The poster has a picture of Aubrie on the right, and text which reads 'Lubbock, Cooper FFA' on the left. At the bottom, text reads 'Ag Youth: Strong, Tomorrow Strong.' 'Congrats, Aubrie!' is written on the bottom right.
Following high school, I want to be a large animal vet, and my SAE helped me in learning how to grow with something and how to be prepared when something does not go right, because when I’m a vet, nothing’s gonna go right. That’s why they’re coming to me, is because something is wrong. And so, it’s good to learn and know how to deal with something that is not right. So, it’s really helped me grow.
Two people hold a small container and walk on a field, followed by two girls who open the gate of a goat's shed, go inside, close the gate, and play with the goats. Later, the visual of two people walking on the field reappears, followed by which the visual of Aubrie standing and giving an interview reappears.
Some advice I would give to an Ag student just starting out in ag would be just ride the course out, enjoy it. Ask your teachers if you have questions, especially if you want to do something big like an SAE project. Or, if you want to join your ACTE team or something specific, just ask them, and they will most likely help you out. If you aren’t into agriculture, that’s okay. If you want to be something, a doctor, take a veterinary course, there’s a lot of the same terms. Just ride out your course. If you love it, then you love it. Stay in it. If you don’t, then find something new. But Agriculture is super, super, super fun. And I enjoy it a lot, and the people surrounding me are super great.