News Meet State Women’s Leadership Committee Chair Rachel Chastain 

Meet State Women’s Leadership Committee Chair Rachel Chastain 

Meet State Women’s Leadership Committee Chair Rachel Chastain 
February 4, 2025 |

By Marlee Jackson

HONK. HONK. HONK.

Rachel Chastain quickly rolled down her truck window, glanced back at her cattle trailer and turned toward the driver who’d caught her attention at an intersection in Talladega.

“Your bull is so pretty!” the lady yelled across lanes.

Chastain kindly responded, “Ma’am, that’s not a bull. That’s a cow.”

“That has to be a bull. It has horns!”

Chastain taught a quick lesson — that horns aren’t exclusive to bulls. She then continued to her destination, Lincoln High School’s farm day.

Chastain laughingly shared that story at a Women’s Ag Communications 101 Workshop organized by the Alabama Farmers Federation State Women’s Leadership Committee (WLC) last spring. She’ll tout the importance of ag education in 2025 while chairing the state committee.

A few years ago, Chastain might have brushed off the idea of serving on the board of directors for Alabama’s largest farm organization. However, graduating from the prestigious Agricultural Leaders For Alabama program in ‘22 fanned the flame for her to seek servant-leadership roles.

“There is no set protocol for what your WLC has to look like,” said Chastain, who leads Talladega County’s WLC and represents Region 2 statewide. “What your committee works on reflects what’s happening in your community. I like it that way. We’re not meant to be cookie-cutter committees.”

In Talladega County, women support county livestock shows and coordinate farm days. Statewide, Ag in the Classroom (AITC) is a heavy hitter.

A teacher at Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind’s (AIDB) Helen Keller School (HKS), Chastain attended her first AITC Summer Institute in 2012. The free conference, coupled with an AITC mini grant, lit a fire for teaching sensory-impaired students through agriculture. She’s since encouraged other educators by presenting at state and national AITC events.

Her HKS Transition program is akin to career tech and shares life skills through raised-bed gardening, laying hens and classes at AIDB’s Joe Tom Armbrester Agriscience Center.

“I love the outside aspect of the classroom,” said Chastain, who has a ready smile, kind spirit and ease with American sign language. “Since it’s not the typical classroom environment, they’re eager to try things.”

Chastain also teaches horticulture at the Sylacauga Grows Community Garden, where apathetic students have become enthusiastic gardeners.

“I tell students, ‘Sometimes, I’m just one Google ahead of you,’” she said.

Chastain is often found tackling projects with her father, Jimmy. Though the family’s commercial dairy closed around 2000, a handful of dairy cows again dot the property. The docile creatures are frequent guests at local farm days and attract homeschoolers interested in farming. Turkey, quail, chickens and goats fleck the farm.

So does a garden. Preserving produce is an art Chastain learned from her father and is teaching her children, Izzy, 21, and Cole, 17.

“It’s just funny how, when you’ve got ag in your blood, it pulls you back,” Chastain said. “If you’d asked 15-year-old me where I’d be, it would not be on the farm. I’m so happy I am. I can’t imagine life differently.” 

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