James July-August 2025 web - Flipbook - Page 80
maintains its position at the heart of the state’s agribusiness community.
In May, officials at the Georgia National Fairgrounds
and Agricenter broke ground on a new $21.5 million
livestock arena and small animal barn, appropriately
dubbed the Larry Walker Arena in honor of the longtime
lawmaker who was so instrumental in bringing the center to Perry. The new arena will host youth competitions
for livestock showing— particularly sheep, swine and
goats— through dedicated farming organizations like 4-H
and between Georgia schools with Ag Ed programs. For
Senator Walker, it’s truly a full circle moment.
“One year my hog was the state grand champion,
and the next year my sister’s hog was the state grand
champion, so we were into it. To me, it has kind of come
full circle. It was my dad’s brainchild, and he was the
driving force behind making all this happen,” the senator
tells James. “And the fact that they’re naming a livestock
arena after him is appropriate, that’s where it all started.”
“What we’ve found is that children who are involved
in something like this generally do better in school, stay
out of trouble, learn discipline and responsibility. And of
course, ag and science go hand in hand. You can easily
get into STEM through that Ag Ed curriculum and make
it relatable to the kids.”
While Walker, like his father, plays a key role in
advocating for the Agricenter, he tells James that the
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A youth livestock show at the Perry Agricenter
state’s governors have always viewed it as one of the
crown jewels of the state’s agriculture industry.
“Every governor we’ve had has been extremely
supportive of the Agricenter. More times than not,
either they were in FFA (Future Farmers of America), or
their children were in 4H, it’s a connection they have,
they get it. Governor (Nathan) Deal was very involved
in FFA, Governor (Roy) Barnes is still involved in raising
cattle, and Governor Brian Kemp’s daughters showed
livestock at the Agricenter in Perry growing up. So, it’s
a real part of our culture in Georgia. Agriculture is our
number one industry, so it’s not a hard sell to our state’s
leadership because most of them have a direct connection to it. We’ve been able to get really good support
from the legislature and our governors.”
The Future of Agriculture
If Rep. Larry Walker, Jr. was peering into the future
when he helped establish the Perry Agricenter 40 years
ago, then Sen. Larry Walker, III is looking even further
ahead today. In 2021, the younger Walker, then the chair
of the Senate Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Committee, visited the Sunbelt Expo in Moultrie and got a
first-hand look at some of the newest advancements in
AgTech. And then he got an idea.
“I’ll never forget, we were under a barn looking at a
precision planter, and Don Koehler (executive director
of the Georgia Peanut Commission) made the comment
to the group that we needed a larger scale demonstration farm for all this technology that was coming online,
and all these changes that were coming to ag.” The senator knew the perfect partner, and the perfect location
for a new test farm.
Walker leaned on the expertise of University System of Georgia Chancellor Sonny Perdue, who helped
launch The Grand Farm Initiative in 2019 while serving as U.S. secretary of agriculture. That Fargo, North
Dakota project— a testing ground for autonomous and
advanced agriculture technology innovations— proved
to be a major success. It received both state and federal grants and millions in funding from interested tech
companies like Microsoft.
A partnership was established between Grand
Farm and the University of Georgia’s College of
