By Lily Fruend

BOOM! Garret the miniature pig came dashing through the side panel of the bar, which let in a bird that made Billy the goat spaz out, which resulted in Daniel Britton and Andrew Williams chasing the animals for 45 minutes straight. This, along with feeding the animals every morning and evening, giving them water, and cleaning out their stalls, pretty much sums up a normal day at the FFA Animal Barn.

The FFA Animal Barn was organized and started about 3 ½ years ago through funding by a grant. Ty Stallings, a 2019 graduate, was the main student in charge of the animals throughout his junior and senior years. Andrew Williams was there most of the time with Ty, and that’s how Andrew was chosen to take over the care of the animals. Andrew started bringing Daniel around the barn when he first got into high school, and now Daniel and Andrew are the ones who run it. Mr. Slagley will occasionally check up on the boys and check how the animals are doing. As of right now, the club doesn’t have any plans to expand their building, but there have been many ideas for the future. 

Some of Andrew’s and Daniel’s favorite duties are receiving new animals and knowing they are doing a good thing by taking care of the animals. A few of their least favorite duties include cleaning the barn and having to chase the animals around when they get spooked. 

Most of the feed and supplies are bought by donations and grants through the state, although they do receive a lot from Cargill. Whenever they decide it’s time to get rid of any of the animals, they normally take them to animal auctions or sell them locally to people they know. 

Andrew and Daniel enjoy spending most of their time at the Animal Barn since they get a lot of community service for doing it, and they both agreed that working on the animal barn is a great experience. They will both continue to work there until they graduate.