HUMBOLDT — Having lived on a farm all his life, Gavin Jaro is well aware the best laid plans can be upended by Mother Nature.
To wit, the Humboldt High School senior and his fellow FFA chapter members were ready to ride their various farm tractors or other implements to school Wednesday morning as part of National FFA Week.
But rainy weather forced an audible. The students agreed to postpone their parade until Friday, when the skies were clear.
Problem was, Friday morning’s temperatures were in the mid teens, with wind chills near zero.
Undaunted, Jaro and a half-dozen others still gathered for an escorted parade through town on their way to school.
Many rode their tractors. Jaro was a bit more sensible, opting to pull his 4020 John Deere tractor on a trailer.
“It was cold,” he laughed.
JARO’S love of all things agricultural fed his desire to get involved in FFA as soon as he walked in the HHS doors as a freshman.
Like his older brother, Cooper, Jaro plans to attend Kansas State University after he graduates this spring.
Unlike his brother, a K-State senior who has a job lined up in the ag insurance field after he earns his degree this spring, Gavin’s career plans involve returning home after college.
“We are a first-generation farm,” he explained. I”m excited to be the second generation” and eventually take over the family operation.
He already has a good head start.
Jaro has helped around the farmstead since he was old enough to do so. He also has an advanced ag internship at Jim Jarred’s farm — where his father, Craig, worked as a farmhand a generation ago — and is known to put in 12 hours a day or longer working on non-school days.
Jaro already has a bevy of experience across the spectrum.
When tending to the family’s 100-head cattle operation, Jaro is tasked with feeding the livestock each day, and taking on other tasks, such as breaking through the ice on frigid days (like Friday.)
