FFA SAE grant has been awarded to Kendall Schoenhals of Haven, KS by Farm Credit. SAE grants are designed to help FFA members create or expand Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) projects, a requirement that all FFA members must complete. An SAE requires FFA members to create and operate an agriculture related business, work at an agriculture-related business or conduct an agricultural research experience. Schoenhals started Kansas Heritage Hollands in 2019 in an effort to produce quality breeding stock of poultry called the Barred Holland. She purchased six hens and a rooster from a breeder with a well-known line of Barred Holland chickens tracing back to those originally developed at Rutgers University in the late 1930’s. This breed is considered Critically Endangered by The Livestock Conservancy. The Livestock Conservancy is the leading umbrella organization for rare and endangered livestock and poultry breeds and breeders in the United States. Schoenhals currently has 18 birds, with plans to slowly expand to 50 birds to be considered a primary breeding flock by the Livestock Conservancy. According to Schoenhals, “I am excited to use this grant to further support my conservation work for Barred Hollands. I plan to purchase an Egg Cart’n portable chicken coop, made locally in Partridge. The portable coop will provide an ideal space for chicks to mature before being evaluated against the breed standard to determine if they can become part of the breeding flock”. Upon completion, FFA members must submit a comprehensive report regarding their career development experience. This year 23 different sponsors made 29 different types of SAE Grants available. A full list of sponsors can be found on the National FFA Organization website on the SAE Grants webpage. Schoenhals is a member of the Haven High School FFA Chapter. Her application was selected from among 5,968 applications nationwide. The National FFA Organization is a school-based national youth leadership development organization of more than 760,000 student members as part of 8,700 local FFA chapters in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
