Washington County Fair Association gifts $25,000 to Blinn Agricultural Sciences Department

Annual interest from endowment will go to the Blinn Ag Club

July 26, 2023

The Washington County Fair Association has recognized the Blinn College District Agricultural Sciences Department for its decades-long contributions to the annual county fair.

Through the Blinn College Foundation, the Fair Association has donated $25,000 to the Agricultural Sciences Department’s Ag Club. Interest from the gift will be used for club activities, including helping pay traveling expenses for the department’s highly successful livestock judging teams. An additional $5,000 was gifted by an anonymous donor.

“The Blinn Ag Department is a big supporter of the fair, from their staff being on committees here to them sending students over to help us set up,” said Michael Bentke, Fair Association President. “We have had interns who have come over and worked the fair with us. This is our way of giving back, our way of saying thank you. They’ve been such a huge help to the fair.”

Dr. Bryn Behnke, Assistant Dean, said Blinn student participation has been a win for the fair and his students.

“Our participation in the fair is a great thing, especially for animal science and livestock evaluation,” Behnke said. “They get access to a bunch of animals throughout the week and it’s a good starting point for us.”

Blinn’s Agricultural Sciences Program is approximately four times the size of any other two-year agricultural program in the state and is based at the W.J. “Bill” Rankin Agricultural Complex on the Blinn-Brenham Campus. The program offers a variety of courses leading to Associate of Science in Agriculture and Associate of Science in Agricultural Business degrees. Courses include several concentrating on ag mechanics such as power units and construction.

The college also sponsors an Agricultural Mechanics Club that allows students to work on projects in a state-of-the-art facility and an Ag Club that is open to members majoring in an ag-related field. The Ag Club focuses on various areas of agriculture and allows students to explore specific interests, including ag mechanics, animal science, plant science, wildlife, and ag business.

For more information, visit www.blinn.edu/agricultural-sciences.