Newsome High students get taste of farming industry in growing agriculture program
Students at Newsome High School are getting hands-on experience learning about livestock, poultry and different aspects of the agriculture industry.
Students and teachers say the program is a unique opportunity to show students different career paths.
The eggs they produce have increased in demand as a nationwide egg shortage persists.
LITHIA, Fla. - Students at one high school in Hillsborough County are getting a taste of the farming industry and helping solve the egg shortage.
Newsome High School runs its program through the nationwide program, Future Farmers of America.
Students get hands-on experience learning about livestock, poultry, and different aspects of the agriculture industry.
The backstory
Melissa Sampson teaches an agriculture class at Newsome High School. Part of her class incorporates traditional classroom education about the agriculture industry.
"They learn the production side of things, the harvesting," Sampson said. "And, if they are not production animals, we learn about the breeding and what we're looking for in the breeding."
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A lot of the learning also happens outside the classroom. Students and teachers manage a farm on campus with chickens, ducks, goats and other animals.
"We show up around like 7, 7:30., and stay until around 8," Zoriana Mikitchook, a sophomore at Newsome High School, said. "We go around every single pen. Give them food, give them water, give them treats."
Students help build the chicken coops, clean all the pens, feed the animals and provide veterinary care.
"We collect the eggs, and then the fertile ones, we put an incubator in the classrooms, and then we hatch them," Emerson Goeltz, a sophomore at Newsome High School, said.
Dig deeper
In the classroom, students will research topics like the poultry industry and bird flu. In the field, they help raise the chickens from the moment they hatch.
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Students will show some of the chickens at events like the Strawberry Festival and collect eggs from other chickens to sell.
"We have a lot of birds, but just not enough to keep up with the demand," Sampson said.
The eggs have been in particularly high demand recently, as the nationwide egg shortage continues to leave grocery store shelves empty.
Students will collect, wash, and package some of their eggs to sell to the staff at Newsome High School.
"So, we try to keep it competitive with the store," Sampson said. "And, obviously, when the store doesn't have them, teachers come to us, and they're like, 'I'll pay whatever, I'll pay whatever, we'll take it.'"
Local perspective
The teachers say the money from egg sales goes straight back into the program to help purchase feed and other materials that keep the farm operating.
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"So, it gives them career paths," Sampson said. "It gives them an extracurricular if they have an animal they want to show or take care of."
Some students say this has been a life-changing experience.
"It's very unique, and it's definitely the highlight of all of high school," Goeltz said.
Sampson says agriculture has been a staple at Newsome High School since it opened, but they revamped the poultry area within the last year and a half.
The Source
FOX 13's Kylie Jones collected the information in this story.
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