A duo of Indian Lake High School/Ohio Hi-Point Career Center FFA students has partnered up for another successful poultry project on campus.
Sophomores Colby Borgerding and Hunter Gross visit the “hoop house” by the high school twice a day to tend to their flock.
Their baby turkeys arrived as “poults” in early August. Since then, Colby and Hunter have been feeding and watering, cleaning the pen and spreading new bedding for approximately 30 rapidly growing birds.
“They’ll do anything for food,” Colby said. “But they are not very friendly birds.”
“Turkeys have a mind of their own,” Hunter agreed. “They are always looking for a way to escape.”
Early in the project, some poults got out and did not survive a raccoon attack. Now the hoop house is further fortified and the birds are safe through the first of November.
To fund this project, ILHS/OHP FFA Advisor and Ag Educator Tanner Schoen said the chapter applied for and received a $2,500 Agricultural and Rural Community Outreach Program grant through the Ohio FFA and Ohio Department of Agriculture. The money was used to purchase the poults and needed supplies.
These turkeys will remain in the hoop house for a few more weeks and then they will be processed in mid-November. The sophomore pair plan to take orders to sell half of their turkeys ahead of Thanksgiving. The other half will be donated to a local food bank to feed area families over the holidays.
Earlier in the year, Hunter and Colby raised 60 chickens and took them to the Logan County Fair in July. One of Borgerding’s birds earned Reserve Grand Champion Meat Pen.
The boys are following in the footsteps of senior FFA student Allix Cotterman, who also raised turkeys and award-winning chickens on campus last year.
As the poultry project winds down, both students are excited about the new 3-acre pasture that is being developed on campus that will allow students to raise larger animals.
“I’ve learned I would much rather raise bigger livestock, like cattle or sheep over birds,” Colby said.
Hunter and Colby will use the experience and money earned through the project for their official FFA Supervised Agricultural Experience. Both hope to obtain their State FFA Degree as juniors next year.