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The Marysville Ag Science Department is a pretty cool place to be, especially when we have visitors.

Not only do we get guest speakers from field experts, but we also get to meet some critters every so often. Most recently, myself–Abigail Thompson, brought in someone. This visitor was one of my own lambs from my flock at home. I shared with the class his story. “Batman” was a week-old baby, who almost didn’t make it. His mom wasn’t the best at helping him nurse, and with the temperature drop, this was not a good pairing. I explained to the class about what you do in this instance. Students in Mrs. Thompson’s class learned how to triage and care for lambs with hypothermia.

Classes like Livestock Management and Animal Health get several animal visits throughout the year whether they are learning how to treat and give vaccines/antibiotics or trimming feet and horns. This allows students the opportunity to get a feel of what it’s like to live on a farm or be a veterinarian. 

Logan Ross is senior at Marysville High School and is a 2-year member of the Marysville FFA chapter.

Logan’s SAE (Supervised Agricultural Experience) started as ride-alongs with his father. Logan has always had a fondness for the outdoors and working hands-on. The first steps of his SAE were working with his dad’s landscaping business which eventually led to an agricultural internship with Union III Outdoor Living. An internship through the ag department is another way to get extra credit. This does not require you to be an FFA member, just enrolled in a class.

Logan’s favorite parts of the job are being able to work side by side with his dad and also seeing the progression of his father’s company over the last four years. After graduation, Logan plans to continue work, but his next steps are to refine and learn new skills so he can move up in the company to become a foreman. Logan wishes to run his own crew doing carpentry.

This Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) spotlight features Austin Bennett. Austin is currently a senior at Marysville High School and is a 4th year member of the FFA program. Austin has come a long way in his FFA career and is serving as the 2024-2025 Vice President. 

Austin says his Ag Business class helped him the most and will continue to benefit him in the future. Agricultural business is one of the many classes in the department that prepare you for life by giving you real-world scenarios to work through. Austin has several SAEs (Supervised Agriculture Experiences), but none compare to his current job.

Austin was noticed and approached by members of Koenig Equipment and has now been working there for a year. After high school, he plans on attending their training program. This two-year training program involves a rotation that will see Austin working for 8 weeks and then attending school for 8 weeks. The Chapter and Ag department would like to thank Austin for all his hard work in improving and inspiring members through this program.

My first Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) spotlight features Will Ramge. Will is a freshman at Marysville High School and is a second-year member of the Chapter.

Will has a promising SAE in the making. So far, his project consists of seven calves, two heifers and five bulls. Will’s future goals for are for his business to become more efficient and profitable, all while also saving up for college. Will has purchased most of the calves on his own from previous fair checks, small jobs, and support from his grandfather. Will has plans to sell his calves to his grandfather to add to his herd after the project is completed.

This is just one of the many skills a SAE project provides students. After high school Will hopes to attend college for Farm Business Management to add knowledge and the skills necessary to continue the family farm.

Last Saturday members of the Marysville FFA observed the Wreaths Across America Ceremony and helped lay wreaths on the veteran’s graves at Oakdale Cemetery.

This is a national holiday that began in 2007 and was adopted by the City of Marysville on Dec 17th, 2022. There are over 1,000 veterans buried in Oakdale Cemetery with many more around Marysville. Next year, the Chapter has set a goal to help purchase a set number of wreaths and find additional sponsors so that as many veterans as possible are honored.

On December 3rd and 4th students from Bunsold Middle School visited both the main high school (MHS) and the STEM school to decide where they will continue their education for the next four years. The Marysville AG Science Department was a big hit.

Students got to see the ends and outs of learning down in hallway E. The tour started with our plant science classes and they were able to see what is currently being grown in the greenhouse. In this pathway, these incoming freshmen can take Floral Design & Marketing or Greenhouse/Landscape Management. 

Next stop, The Shop, kids got to see the shop in use by some upperclassmen. This looked like welding, woodworking, and equipment use. You can take the Power, Structural & Technical Systems (AG Power 1) as a freshman.

Finally, The Animal systems classes were shown off. Students saw the department’s animals and occasional visitors, along with a dissection of a cow’s uterus. This is used for our Livestock and Vet science classes. Freshmen are eligible for Companion Animal Selection/ Nutrition & Management, Livestock Selection & Management, Natural Resources & Wildlife, and Animal Health.

As kids start to sign up for next year’s classes encourage them to take a look at MHS AG classes, and for any kid unsure where to start check out the Food and Natural Resources class as it covers almost everything in the department. 

Marysville FFA Officers Abby Thompson, Abby Pratt, and Riley Karcher held Greenhand Boot Camp for first-year members looking to start their FFA career.

This year there were 21 students that attended the boot camp. To earn The Greenhand Degree the student is required to know The FFA Creed, Motto, History, and the levels of degrees. They must also have a solid SAE project (supervised agriculture experience). During camp students made a “Creed board”. This is a fun tradition the Officers decided to bring back this year. The point of this board is for Greenhands to learn the Creed, but also for some friendly competition. They were tasked with memorizing one of the five paragraphs and to repeat them to our Officers and Advisor for signatures.

Next stop Chapter degree!

This week, the Marysville FFA took their first trip of the school year to FFA Camp Muskingum. But before we got to the happiest place on dirt, we stopped for a tour at Hillview Farms in Coshocton.  This is a family-owned operation started by George Beeson, now being managed by Larry Hobbs as well as his children Matt Hobbs and Carrie Grome.  They raise corn crops and cattle, from roughly 6-7 months of age until they are finished out and are ready for slaughter.

We got to see where cattle are processed after arriving on the farm, to ensure the cattle are healthy and free from injury.  As a takeaway from this trip, we learned that cattle take a long time to reach market weight, and this ranch serves as home to the cattle to grow off of pasture before shipping them to Marysville to complete the final phase of growth with locally produced corn.  We met Larry and Deb Prysi, managers of the ranch location of Hillview Farms, and they walked us through tasks of pasture rotation and mineral supplementation. Larry and Deb are next door neighbors to the ranch and help to keep a close eye on this part of the farm as the rest of the farm has a busy schedule back in Marysville. Larry and Deb also have a separate cow/calf operation, raising 68 calves this past year, which they work with Hillview Farms to sell to market. We thank them for allowing us to have the opportunity to see a little behind the scenes! 

Day two, Officers Abigail Thompson and Natalie Willams planned out our day at Ohio FFA Camp Muskingum. Starting with “The Dam Tour”, a pontoon boat tour of the Leesville Lake Dam, and stops along the way to learn the history of the camp and the significance of the construction of the dam to protect families and farms of the Leesville watershed. Next was a chance to learn and practice archery along with team bonding challenges on an outdoor obstacle course. Then we were off to our first leadership workshop, an ice breaker to get the group comfortable with one another.

Our second workshop was a trust activity where members partnered up with the goal of one person talking to the other blindfolded person to walk through the maze without touching anything. Sounds easy but it was not! Every step off course or obstacle hit added penalty time. This was quite the challenge for students but boy was it funny to watch and participate in!

Our third and final workshop helped teach communication. Students were put in groups to build a spaghetti tower; the builder couldn’t talk, and the other students couldn’t build but had to give instructions. They all did very well even if some didn’t have the best base and fell over. Outside of workshop time students had a blast trying out the camp’s awesome waterfront.  Kayaking, paddleboarding, and swimming in the lake were refreshing ways to spend the day and continue to build off of the relationships built over the two-day retreat. 

The Officer team hopes everyone in attendance had an amazing trip and our membership can’t wait to see more students get involved!