Southeast High School recently introduced a new animal to the farm…at least temporarily. Darby, a mixed miniature steer, arrived here on Sept. 12 but the next day, during Buff Blast, he decided to make his escape. After jumping over the fence, he ventured out into the great unknown.
“I am the one that witnessed it firsthand,” FFA member Jordan Bass (12) said. “So, it was pretty shocking because we left for Buff Blast, and he was fine. We come back from after Buff Blast, he’s in the goat pen. Then I left, and apparently, he got into the field somewhere. So, it was surprising.”
The search for the cow was on and it wasn’t until later that he was found in a pasture, south from the school. Darby seemed to be attempting to join a herd of cows, some of which wanted nothing to do with him.
“When we’re finally trying to catch him, it [didn’t] go well,” agriculture student Kenzie Stanfield (11) said. “Everybody tries to corner him and stuff, but then he jumps the fence and I’m like oh my god…I’ve never seen a cow jump like that before.”
Darby is currently back home while waiting for our fences to be reinforced. Once he’s back, agriculture teachers Joanna Farmer and Cami McAndrew are looking forward to incorporating him into their lessons.
“We wanted to make sure that we have a multitude of different types of animals to study out here on the farm,” Farmer said.
Many might expect that taking care of a steer would be difficult, but Farmer says that cattle aren’t much different than any other animal on the farm.
“We plan on having people from the community come out and help with things that we can’t handle, like hoof trimming and things like that,” Farmer explained. “And then everything else will be taken care of by our animal science and our animal health students.”
