YODER – As the FFA advisor and agriculture teacher at Southeast Schools, it’s always been Jay Clapper’s job – and passion – to give students a firsthand experience when it comes to learning about where their food comes from. 

It’s easier for students who grew up on farms and ranches to get that experience. Most of them come into his program with at least some experience from raising 4-H animals or having some knowledge from their family operations, but Clapper and his students have spent the last few school years building portable farms that can allow every student the opportunity to experience production agriculture firsthand. 

 “I think if we’re going to get students excited about agriculture, they’ve got to at least taste it and realize that it’s not big and scary to get started, and that there is some joy in it,” he said. 

The Southeast FFA program received $10,000 in grant funds last academic year from Westco and Land-O-Lakes, and since then the program has put together several more portable farming units. They’ve built two portable barns that can be used for calves, sheep – anything that fits, really. There are two adopt-a-sow units, which give students the opportunity to adopt a bred sow, care for it and raise its offspring. There’s also a five-row corn planter. 

There’s a poultry processing unit, which Clapper said has become a hot ticket item in the community. 

“We’re getting a lot of excitement about that and people are wanting to rent it,” he said. “We’re kind of toying with what we would charge people who aren’t FFA, but we do want it to be available to the community to use. We are looking at possibly having a few days this summer where my students could be hired to process those chickens that people raise. I’ve got some freshmen who are excited about that.”

The last two units will be a portable beehive unit, which is currently under construction, and a poultry coop. 

The bee unit is a solution to a problem Clapper said he didn’t want to face. The reality for most students is that they won’t be able to find a way into production agriculture without family land of large bankrolls. That forced Clapper to think outside of the box for a way these students could experience agriculture. 

“One of the things tough for me to face is that a lot of my students will not end up in traditional production ag,” he said. “I think the bees, No. 1, there is tremendous potential for profit. Each beehive, when its full functioning, can produce about 60 pounds of honey at about $8 a pound. You can create attachments that catch pollen, and you can also sell the glue that glues them together. There’s potential there for money, but with it not being the norm, it’s also more exciting. Bees play a very key role in agriculture and as we know around this community, there are a lot of bee hives.”

The portable bee unit holds five hives. Originally, Clapper intended for it to hold six, but as it turns out, six hives makes it a commercial operation and additional licenses are required. Five hives keeps it classified as a hobby.

Like Clapper’s other portable farming units, the portable hive comes with everything a beekeeper would need to work the hives. 

“We’re still somewhat portable,” he said. “There is a storage area for everything to do with our bees.”

The unit is designed to be operated with three beekeepers, Clapper said, and it will provide those students with a look at a non-traditional agricultural resource. 

“I want to it to be where three students are working on it together,” he said. “That way, we have the manpower to do the babysitting they need. 

“In my mind, it’s just a little bit new and different. There is actually a lot of interest in getting bees to thrive in our agricultural communities.”

Clapper said the portable farming units have had an impact on the students who have used them. His own daughter, Danielle, is currently using one of the sow units and she’s just one of the students who have learned the valuable lessons agriculture teaches. 

“Danielle, my daughter, she just had babies,” Clapper said. “She had nine babies and seven lived, so we’re doing really good there. 

“From our adopt-a-sow program over my entire career, I’ve probably had six or seven students get their own bred sows and continue on their own, so they actually continued doing this. There’s just something real about experiencing agriculture first hand, from an animal requiring you to keep them alive and healthy, to the profit and losses of that. 

“I think in my bottle calf program, where students get two calves and they raise them up, it’s just a neat experience that they’re part of raising food. I’ve always had a deep passion that kids get to taste or feel agriculture firsthand.”