SAE Visit #2: No Kidding Around

The second SAE visit I made was to visit Janee who raises dairy goats. Although Janee did not grow up on farm, she has dreams of growing her passion of animals into a small thriving business. Janee is a freshman at Derry Area High School and has been active in FFA since last year. Her SAE program is currently an exploratory, but she has hopes of expanding into an entrepreneurship program.

Mr. Campbell & Janee checking on the herd of dairy goats

Janee is in the process of expanding her dairy goat herd, so she can meet the demands for her growing soap business. However, she considers this expansion a small one. Eventually, Janee would like to have a large enough herd of dairy goats to secure a fluid milk market. However before she achieves this, she would like to attend Penn State to major in Agribusiness Management, so that she can become an Agriculture Loan Officer. Janee truly has a determined mindset, and has set many goals knowing that she would like to see a return on her investment in the future.

A design of a Goat Milk Soap Bar

As a freshman, Janee finds keeping records a little difficult. Therefore, for the next three years she wants to improve her timeliness with entering her journal entries and income and expenses. She also has a goal to utilize her Flex period at Derry Area High School to enter her in-class time and FFA activities to ensure she does not get behind.

Students in the Derry Agriculture/Horticulture program have an SAE/FFA one credit course in there gradebook system that is updated based on multiple criteria. Students are graded overall on quality and completeness. In addition, students are expected to create and reach goals, so they continue to improve their programs.

Prior to visiting Mr. Campbell and I sat down and reviewed Janee's records on the AET, and created questions to ask about the program. The only recommendation I could provide to Janee's SAE program is to continue to keep up with records in a timely manner, so she does not fall behind.