Agriculture runs on steel. Grain bins, livestock panels, feed bunks, equipment trailers, gates, shop buildings, and hay rings — if you work a farm or ranch in the Willamette Valley, a big chunk of your day-to-day depends on metal that was cut, formed, welded, or bolted by someone. That's why Ram Steelco is proud to sponsor the Salem-Keizer FFA Chapter — and why we see it as a direct investment in the future of Oregon ag, not just a logo on a banner.
Who the Salem-Keizer FFA Is
FFA — originally Future Farmers of America — is a national youth organization that prepares students for careers in agriculture, natural resources, food science, and agribusiness. The Salem-Keizer chapter serves students across the Salem-Keizer School District, one of the largest districts in Oregon and one of the most agriculturally diverse regions in the state.
FFA members build real skills: livestock judging, shop and welding work, ag mechanics, crop science, ag business, and public speaking. The national organization has over a million members. The kids walking around in blue jackets at the county fair are the same ones who will be running Oregon farms, feed yards, fab shops, and ag equipment dealerships ten years from now.
Why a Steel Supplier Sponsors an Ag Program
On the surface, steel and FFA might look like two different worlds. They're not.
Ag shops are one of the biggest customers for small-format steel. A working farm needs:
- Square tube and angle iron for gates, panels, and feeders
- Sheet and plate for trailer decks, implement repairs, and hopper bins
- Round bar and flat bar for hinges, latches, and custom brackets
- Expanded metal and grating for walkways, ramps, and livestock floors
Every FFA student who learns to weld a straight bead, read a shop drawing, or figure out how much plate it takes to build a feed bunk is a future customer of a steel yard somewhere. More importantly, they're the next generation of people who keep food on tables, fences standing, and shops running across the state.
Supporting FFA is how we make sure the trades that rely on steel have enough skilled people to keep growing.
What Our Sponsorship Supports
Sponsorship dollars for a chapter like Salem-Keizer don't disappear into overhead. They fund the stuff that actually makes the program work: competition travel, contest entry fees, welding and shop supplies, livestock project costs, and scholarships for members heading into ag programs at Oregon State, Chemeketa, and other schools.
For students whose families can't always cover the cost of a shop project or a trip to state competition, that kind of support is the difference between participating and sitting out. We'd rather fund one more kid's welding project than one more ad.
The Ram Steelco Connection to Oregon Agriculture
Ram Steelco has served Oregon since 1938. A lot of our long-time customers are farms, ranches, custom ag fabricators, and shops that build and repair ag equipment. We stock the sizes ag shops actually use, we cut it the way they need it, and we deliver it where the work is happening.
When an Oregon farm needs steel, we can handle the whole job in-house:
- Laser cutting for precise brackets, gussets, and replacement parts from DXF files
- Hy-def plasma cutting for thicker plate work — hopper bottoms, implement frames, skid plates
- Shearing for clean, straight sheet cuts
- Saw cutting for structural shapes, bar, and tube
- Forming and bending for custom brackets, panels, and sheet metal work
- Rolling for curved sections used in bins, tanks, and round structures
- Rebar processing for concrete pads, barns, and shop floors
If you have a DXF or PDF of a part, we can take it from drawing to finished piece. If you don't, we'll help you figure it out. Read our laser cutting steel guide or the hy-def plasma cutting guide to see how the processes compare, or check our full metal processing services guide for a walkthrough of everything we can do in-house.
Steel for Farms, Ranches, and Ag Shops in Oregon
If you're running an ag operation or fabrication shop and want to work with a local steel supplier who actually understands what you're doing, here's what we offer:
- Next-day delivery across Oregon — call by midafternoon, get it the next day. See our delivery info.
- Will-call pickup at our Portland yard if you need it sooner
- Cut-to-length service so you don't waste time (or material) on cuts you don't need to make
- DXF and PDF quoting — send us your files and we'll quote the work
- Honest advice on grades and sizes — we'll tell you if A36 or A572 is right for the job, or if a lighter gauge will save you money without hurting the build
Whether you're fixing a broken cattle guard, building a new loafing shed, or fabricating parts to keep an older combine running another season, we've got the material and the processing to help.
Looking Ahead
Sponsoring Salem-Keizer FFA isn't a one-time thing. It's part of how we want to show up in the community long-term — supporting the people learning the trades and working the land that Oregon depends on.
If you're an FFA supporter, an ag teacher, a farm operator, or just someone who cares about where the next generation of skilled trades is coming from, thank you for doing your part. We'll keep doing ours.
Need Steel for a Farm or Ag Project?
Call us at (503) 588-1311 or request a quick quote online. Tell us what you're building — we'll help you figure out the right material, the right processing, and the fastest way to get it on your job site.
You can also browse all products or contact our sales team if you need help spec'ing a project. We're here Monday through Friday and happy to talk through anything, from a single piece of plate to a multi-pallet order for a new shop build.
Ram Steelco has been Oregon's steel yard since 1938 — family-owned, locally operated, and proud to support the Salem-Keizer FFA Chapter and the next generation of ag leaders.
