OFI 1782: Long Term Thinking And Proactivity | FFA SAE Edition – Featured Freshman | JD Thompson | Wessington Springs High School FFA

JD Thompson is in his first year of the FFA, and he is one of the most long term and forward thinking students that I have interviewed. Through research and exploration, JD discovered the business of raising deer for sale to high fenced hunting ranches. Once he discovered this he ramped up his research and found a ranch in South Dakota that was raising deer for this purpose. He reached out to the owner, asked him several questions and is soon going there for a tour. JD is hoping to work for him for a couple of weeks this summer to get a closer look at how the operation works.

JD has a very long timeline on this project. He will be developing his facilities over the next couple of years and saving his money in order to purchase his first deer. He is hoping to purchase his first deer by his senior year, and if things go better than expected by the end of his junior year. By that time, JD hopes to have visited some ranches in Texas and started networking with owners there that host hunters.

JD is showing a lot of wisdom in planning out a long timeline. This will give him the opportunity to learn and study and get experience. It will also prevent him from rushing in financially to a potentially volatile business and harming himself financially.

SUPERVISED AGRICULTURAL EXPERIENCE: Deer Entrepreneurship

HIGH SCHOOL: Wessington Springs High School; Wessington Springs, South Dakota

MASCOT: Spartans

FFA ADVISOR: Brady Duxbury

CONTACT INFORMATION FOR JD THOMPSON:

Click on the picture below to be taken to the Wessington Springs High School Ag. Department’s website:

JD’s FFA Advisor’s Email Address: Brady.Duxbury@k12.sd.us

Wessington Springs High School’s Telephone Number: (605) 539-9391

FFA LINKS:

National FFA Organization

Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAE’s)

Support FFA

Donate to FFA – One way that FFA students are able to start small businesses is through an FFA grant of $1,000. In 2014, 141 FFA students received these grants. With your donations, more students can get this head start – pay it forward.

REASONS TO DONATE TO FFA:

Only 2% of Americans grow and raise most of the food and livestock consumed by the other 98% as well as the rest of the world. FFA is providing the needed education, training and resources to Americans that will carry that torch forward and insure that America continues to have inexpensive, quality food.
Rural Communities will rely on entrepreneurship in the future for population growth and job creation. The FFA is a major catalyst to that entrepreneurial growth.
Farmers, ranchers and those working in agriculture give the rest of America incredible amounts of freedom because the search for food is as simple as going to the grocery store:

“Because American farmers are able to provide for so many of us, they give more and more of us the freedom to pursue goals and livelihoods beyond growing the food we need to survive.”

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack