Past Verde Valley Fair winner to teach agriculture to next generation

Although Tanner Baker moved away from Cottonwood for college nearly two years ago, he still video calls people here while the Verde Valley Fair is going on.

“Just had market this morning,” Baker said the morning of Thursday, April 30, “and a family that I’ve been helping with [the Longfellows] just won grand champion, and a pig that I bred actually just won reserve champion a few hours ago.”

The fair ran from April 29 to Sunday, May 3, at the Verde Valley Fairgrounds in Cottonwood. Baker was involved with the fair for over a decade.

The college sophomore also won Breeder of the Year in 2024, after he began his own business, TB Show Pig, before moving for college. It’s a “small operation,” he said, with only three sows.

While away from the Verde Valley, Baker has been attending Western Texas College and graduated Thursday, May 7, with an associate of science degree in agriculture.

“He was selected as the Outstanding Student in Agriculture at Western Texas College this year,” the college’s agriculture department posted on social media. “Tanner has been at WTC for two years where he participated on the Meats Judging Team and the Swine Show Team and also served as the president of the Ag Club his sophomore year.”

“I’m transferring up to Texas Tech University in northern Texas,” he said. “I’ve been looking at a few of their clubs and they have a horticulture club, which is basically the study of plants. They have Future Ag Teachers of Tomorrow.”

He’s excited for that second one especially, because agriculture education will be his new major at Texas Tech and it’s where he sees himself the most, looking ahead.

He said he’s received a lot of help and a lot of inspiration from his advisor and advisor at WTC, Jessica Colvin.

“Really made me think I want to be that person, in that classroom, that teacher, that professor, that can help these students,” he said. “When there’s a student [who] comes in, like me, that is passionate about this industry, I will be there to help them.”

Agriculture Background

The 2024 Mingus Union High School graduate is not new to the agriculture world. He grew up surrounded by animals and was a Future Farmers of America officer for three years while attending MUHS, including twice as FFA president.

“I got into showing in high school, and it just really took off,” he said. “So I quit all sports, and I’m glad I did, because the amount of scholarships I’ve won through these things has pretty much paid for all of my school.”

He was the Arizona state champion in the 2023 livestock evaluation competition and in dairy evaluation, he was thestate champion in 2024.

Baker has been involved in animal showing for quite some time and has traveled across the state and competed at state fairs.

“I also showed at national shows, so I showed at the Denver National Livestock Show. … I’ve shown at Fort Worth, [Texas], I’ve shown at Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado.”

Through WTC’s Meats Judging Team, he travels just about every weekend and goes all over Texas.

“I go into a lot of beef plants, pork plants, lamb plants,” he said. “Just like the USDA would go through to grade the meat for sale.”

He said outside of class and practicing academically, he works with a few breeders around the Texas area to keep up his hands-on experience in the industry.

Learning

“Agriculture isn’t just animals, it goes to crops, it goes to business, it goes to so many different aspects,” he said. “For me, this industry stands out because it teaches you leadership, teaches you responsibility.”

The responsibility part, which he said includes ensuring the animal is healthy and cared for, he learned early on in participating in events like those at the Verde Valley Fair, especially when raising the animals for showing.

“Another really big thing I love to tell younger kids is this is great problem solving, because they’re animals,” he said. “Things are going to happen, they’re going to break fences, they’re going to break feeders, they’re going to have problems with the weight. It really helps you look at the problem as a whole.”

The animals are dependent on their caretakers for things like food, medical care and everything else that may come up over the course of the animal’s life.

“We always joke,” he said, “our animals are always eating better than us.”