Franklin County is known for its family farms and FFA and agriculture programs. If voters approve an extension of the special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST) for schools on March 16, agriculture educators plan to expand their programs to reach more students who may not live on a family farm.
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Devin Bowyer (center, with FCHS ag teacher Trey Harris at right) is one of the students who has benefited from being able to leave his pig project at the ag barn at Franklin County High School. Bowyer, one of the barn’s student managers, began showing pigs two years ago and won Senior Showmanship recently at the Georgia National Fair. A new ag barn that will allow more students to keep their pigs, sheep, goats and calves at school will be funded if voters choose to extend a special purpose local option sale
CARNESVILLE – Franklin County is known for its family farms and FFA and agriculture programs.
If voters approve an extension of the special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST) for schools on March 16, agriculture educators plan to expand their programs to reach more students who may not live on a family farm.
The Franklin County School System is asking to extend the local one-cent per dollar tax for five years or until it collects $30 million.
Agriculture education facilities – along with a new Royston Elementary School and athletic field renovations – is one of the big three items on the SPLOST ballot.
The money for agriculture will be used to build a new barn and for either renovating the current Agriculture Center at Franklin County High School or to build a new center.
Trey Harris, one of FCHS’s agriculture teachers, said the new barn will allow more students who don’t have land to raise a show pig, goat or calf to participate in the program.
"I started showing livestock when I could keep my pigs at the school barn,” student Zach Martin said. “My family doesn't know much about livestock or pigs and I am just grateful to have this opportunity. Starting as one of the younger members in the barn, I looked up to the older kids and valued their opinions and competitive spirit. Even when I had to sit out a show season because I had open heart surgery, my show family in the barn encouraged me and checked on my recovery quite often. I even found out that a pig was kept, fed and worked with as a reserve... just in case my recovery was quick enough for me to finish out the season."
It will also allow the program to diversify the kinds of animals kept at the barn.
Currently, the FCHS ag barn and program is pig-heavy.
The Franklin program is known for having students raise and show pigs, Harris said, and the program has expanded significantly.
Two years ago, the FCHS barn had eight pigs in it, Harris said. This season, there were 71.
“It’s definitely a need,” he said. “There’s been a lot of success we’ve found in the barn.”
Students who can’t keep their projects at home leave them at the barn and feed them before or after school each day.
Harris has students who serve as barn managers that oversee the chores at the facility and serve as mentors to younger students.
The impact of the program can be seen in one of those managers, Devin Bowyer.
Bowyer only began showing hogs two years ago but recently won the Senior Showmanship ribbon at the Georgia National Fair, Harris said.
The new ag barn will cater to the needs of all students and allow more participation by goat, sheep and calf projects, Harris said.
A concept drawing of the new barn – which would be located across High Road from the high school on acreage that is currently only used as the cross-country course – shows a facility about half the length of a poultry house.
The building will have fans on one end to pull fresh air through the barn and cool cells on the other to provide an area to keep cattle cool.
Cool temperatures encourage show cows to grow more hair, which is desirable in the show ring, Harris said.
Paddocks for the cattle will open up to an outside area where they could graze on fresh grass.
Multiple pens on the other end of the building could be tailored for pigs, sheep or goats, with interchangeable water features for each species.
A feeding station would be set up as part of the ag program’s self-made feed production.
Harris said Floyd Farms partners with the agriculture program to provide fresh corn and soybeans.
The program’s mixer makes the feed.
The new facility will have three bins – each filled with two tons of feed each.
Students will use a punch-pad system to get 25-pound buckets of feed for their animals.
Students who keep their animals at home can purchase the feed in 50-pound sacks, Harris said.
Another part of the new barn will include an air conditioned and heated seating area for parents who wait on their children to work in the barn.
Two locker rooms will include lockers for each student where they can keep work boots and clothes to change into before or after school to work their projects.
A lab-type area will serve as a large animal work station for pig castrations, breeding projects and necropsies of poultry.
The facility will also include an area to keep fresh and dirty wood shavings.
The idea for the barn was developed by a committee of community members and school leaders.
The committee is made up of Kent Hall, Gary Farmer, Gary Minyard, Stanley Whitsett, Cole Watkins, Trey Harris, Kirk Dawkins, Cole Roper, Blake Haley, Alan Mitchell, Dr. Savannah Thomas and Garren Hall.
The group toured barns in other counties for ideas on what to include and not to include, Harris said.
“I think this type of project showcases the importance of SPLOST,” Harris said.
The other big agriculture project on the ballot will be the Agriculture Center.
Franklin County School Superintendent Chris Forrer said either a renovation of the current center or a completely new center adjacent to the new ag barn are being considered.
If a new center is built, the current facility may be renovated as a banquet hall and meeting space, Forrer said.
Harris said the ag center changes came up because Franklin County has been approached about hosting larger animal shows – which would mean 300 pigs or 150 cows – that will require more space and seating capacity.
Early voting in the referendum to extend the special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST) for education is open weekdays through March 12 from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. at the Franklin County Elections and Registration office at 7850 Royston Road in Carnesville.
If the tax is approved by voters, the county’s total sales tax levy will remain at seven per cent.
The items to be funded are listed in the ballot question.