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Hernando Today

Until The Cows Come Home

Local kids spend holiday break working their tails off.

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By LINNEA BROWN

Published: December 29, 2007

BROOKSVILLE - BROOKSVILLE - Day in and day out, members of Hernando High School's Brooksville Senior chapter of FFA take care of business.
Feeding, grooming, cleaning, weighing: It's all part of caring for pigs and steers and, for club members, a source of pride.
"When I come into class in the mornings after feeding the animals, the kids around me are like 'Ew, the smell,' and I'm like, 'Did I mention I work with steers?'" joked freshman Annie Cattenhorn, 14.
Annie is one of nine students spending the year raising three steers to be shown and sold for slaughter at the Hernando County Fair in April. She is also one of 140 members of the school's FFA chapter, formerly known as Future Farmworkers of America.
"Talk about being responsible," FFA adviser Rick Ahrens said. "These kids are up at (the school's barn) Christmas Day, Thanksgiving Day, weekends, rain, shine, cold, everything. They're there, taking care of the animals."
The steers are named for Shakespearean tragedies -- Othello, Hamlet and Romeo -- because they will ultimately "meet their end," Ahrens said.
From September to April, the students stick to a schedule and take turns, arriving early to school and staying late several times a week to feed, bathe and care for the animals and clean their pens -- not to mention weighing the animals and keeping a vigilant eye on how much they're eating.
On weekends and holidays, the responsibilities remain the same.
"If they can't be there, they communicate with someone else on their team to be there," Ahrens said. "To date, we've only had one assignment missed, which I think is pretty impressive."
Wearing a chapter T-shirt emblazoned with the motto "Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway," senior Christina Ebbert, 17, recalled the first time she tried to take Romeo out of his pen, he pinned her in a corner.
"I was so scared," she said, recounting that she soon learned how to give him a light "tap" on the nose as a disciplinary measure.
"I think it's teaching me responsibility and respect for other animals," Christina added.
While they know they are raising the steers for beef, she and sophomore Kirsten Gorse, 16, are both vegetarians.
Both said they dread the day their animals are sold.
"Even though you know what they're there for, you grow attached to them," Christina admitted. "It will be sad to see them go."
"I figure they're alive now, so I want to give them a good life," added Kirsten, who hopes to one day become a veterinarian.
Since the students come to the school's barn alone during school breaks and on weekends, they let themselves in through a double lock. When school starts again, the students will return to washing the animals.
"We don't do it much on vacations, because we don't like having a kid and animal out when there aren't others there," Ahrens said. "Even though the animals are broken, they're still 700 to 800-lb. animals that could hurt somebody just by playing."
"These kids are not getting a grade for this," he added. "This is strictly volunteer work, and they do for the love the animals. Also, because of the zoning requirements and financial obligation (of owning an animal), they probably would not otherwise have the opportunity to work with an animal of this size."
All proceeds from the sale of the steers in April will go to the chapter, which will reinvest the money into next year's project and upkeep of the animals' pens. The pens, feed and many necessary supplies have also come from community donors.
And the amount the animals bring in varies by year, Ahrens said.
"A lot depends on how kids market the animals, how the economy is and how willing people are to help," he said. "To be honest, I'm a little nervous this year -- but (local residents) have always been good about supporting our kids and their projects."
The national organization officially shortened its name from Future Farmworkers of America to FFA several years ago.
Some students try it for a year and decide its "not for them," while others spend their high school years in FFA and go on to careers of agriculture or working with animals. However, their greatest lesson is an appreciation for their food, Ahrens said, who teaches agriscience at the school.
"Ask any kid today where their hamburger comes from, and they'll say McDonald's. Their milk, and they'll say Publix," he said. "As we get more and more away from the family farm, we don't understand where our food (really comes from)."

Reporter Linnea Brown can be contacted at 352-544-5289 or lbrown@hernandotoday.com.

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