A Smith Valley Tradition

With so many uncertainties for the students living in a pandemic, it was reassuring to see an annual tradition continue.  Smith Valley FFA holds a turkey processing event every year before the Thanksgiving holiday.  The Turkey Business is just one of the many student-run businesses out of Smith Valley School's (SVS) FFA program.  Audrina Banta, 7th grade student at Smith Valley Middle School, is the student in charge of the Turkey Business and the turkey processing event held on Friday, November 20th. 

This year, Banta sold 36 turkeys, one of which was pardoned by SVS Principal Duane Mattice.  

The largest turkey this year was a whopping 30lbs.  

Banta's business is standing tradition with many repeat customers who count on Smith Valley FFA to provide the turkey at their Thanksgiving feast.  Banta and the FFA students handle every aspect of the processing from death to scalding, plucking, evisceration, cleaning and packaging.  These students are true caring professionals when it comes to turkey processing.  Banta even adds her own special touch to the process... Before each turkey heads to the processing lineup she holds it, gives it some love, says thank you for your sacrifice or thank you for providing for some family's Thanksgiving feast.

Although the event was quite successful, it did not come without its challenges.  The Turkey Business usually buys turkey poults (aka turkey chicks) from a breeder who ships out the poults at two days old.  The travel is usually quite harsh on the young turkeys with only about half surviving the trip or coming with birth defects.  In addition, Smith Valley FFA also struggled with theft this year.  Turkeys, among other items, were stolen from the program.   Nonetheless, the relentless Audrina Banta and Smith Valley FFA continued with the turkeys that remained.

Banta will keep six turkeys, one of which is a male, to breed her own turkeys for the following year and hopefully moving forward.  If Banta is able to breed and grow her own turkeys, she would be able to eliminate the need for a breeder and hopefully produce more healthy turkeys for the future of her business.  She hopes to have about 60 turkeys for next year's event, which would almost double her production from this year.  The proceeds from the turkey processing go in part back to Smith Valley FFA, to fund next year's event and to the business manager, Audrina Banta.

Banta plans to work with this Turkey Business through her middle and high school years, giving her a chance to make some lasting changes and innovation.  Since Banta is only in 7th grade, she has the next five years to give her turkey breeding plans a go and time to see her business flourish.  In addition to breeding turkeys for next year's Thanksgiving holiday, she also plans to sell some of the turkeys for show at the National Junior Livestock Show (NJLS).  Banta will breed White Heritage, Chocolate and Mixed Breed (Chocolate and White Heritage) since those are the breeds she will be keeping to breed.  She found this year that those with Chocolate in their genetics tend to grow slower.  She plans to keep this in mind and addressing this throughout the year so that all of her turkeys will be in prime condition come next Thanksgiving.

The pardoned turkey was a small female named "Smalls"