TTU students create agriculture magazine cover to cover

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - An agriculture magazine is about to be printed after months of hard work by Texas Tech students.

It tells stories from campus and features articles about what’s going on in the Ag industry across the South Plains.

An assistant professor of practice in agriculture communications, Lindsay Kennedy, said the Agriculturist is built from the ground up by Davis College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources students.

“They start from the beginning to the end of the magazine production process,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy said the students write the stories, take the photos, layout the magazine and sell ads to pay for it to be printed. This year, the group sold $40,000 worth of advertisements.

“In that room right there, you have over 50 students that developing a publication that has just below $40,000 worth of people that have invested in us to produce this magazine,” the magazine editor, Carlye Winfrey, said.

Its target audience is Davis College alumni who each get their own copy. Winfrey said their goal is to keep them up to date with what’s going on in the college and what’s happening on farms and ranches in our area.

“Look at themes of what is going on in the agriculture industry, in West Texas, the greater Southern Plains and also Lubbock, Texas,” Winfrey said.

Winfrey said agriculture has so many pieces it’s not always easy to explain. Being an agriculture communications major, she specializes in projects like this.

“It’s my job to be able to figure out how can I get what a farmer in the Lubbock area is doing and put that in a press release so someone in inner city Dallas can understand it,” Winfrey said.

One student, Breely Huguley, said the hardest part was time management.

“It’s kind of a time crunch of like, okay what’s most important, what’s going to take the most time and what needs to be done first,” Huguley said.

These seniors said they have gained skills that will help them in life after Texas Tech.

“Being able to be on the production side of a magazine has just really been enlightening to me, and it just shows me the hard work I’m going to have to keep doing to get to where I need to be,” Huguley said.

Soon, these 50 students will hold the 2023 Agriculturist magazine after working on it for months.

It will be printed in early June and hard copies will be sent out to advertisers and alumni. Anyone can find a copy of the magazine online this summer and read previous ones here.

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