VERSAILLES – Troy May, a senior at Versailles High School who participates in the Agriculture Education Capstone Program, has been selected as the capstone highlight student of the month.
The Versailles Agriculture Education Capstone Program is in its eighth year of existence. May is the son of Bernie and Heidi May of Versailles. Capstone is a program that gives Versailles High School junior and senior students that are enrolled in agriculture education an opportunity to gain real world employment experiences and opportunities while in high school.
May started working at Indian Stone Holsteins in February 2018, and has continued to work throughout his senior year. Indian Stone Holsteins LLC is owned and operated by Charlie and Anton Henry of Versailles. Indian Stone Holsteins milk 350 registered Holsteins and farm 550-acres of corn, soybeans, wheat and alfalfa and their milk is marketed to Dannon in Minster.
May is employed as an assistant dairy herdsman and his responsibilities at Indian Stone Holsteins LLC include: milking 350 dairy cows morning and nights on assigned days, feeding calves and older cattle, mixing feed, operating skid loader to clean barn, assisting with the administration of medications when needed, assisting with field work, especially in the fall with chopping corn silage and drawing blood samples to be used for pregnancy testing in the dairy herd. He is supervised by Charlie and Anton Henry, owners of Indian Stone Holstein LLC.
Anton said “Troy is responsible, timely, flexible, a team player and very conscious of his work.” Anton added that Troy is an asset to their farming operation and appreciates his reliability.
May has enlisted in the United States Marines and will be attending boot camp after graduation. He will apply the skills he has learned at Indian Stone Holsteins LLC to his military career.
This year a record 36 students are enrolled in the Versailles Agriculture Education Capstone programs and are leaving school after their daily required courses are complete and working at area businesses. The goal of the spotlight is to highlight each month one of the students that participate in the capstone program and highlight the skills/knowledge they are gaining, the roles/assets they are to their business. The students enrolled in capstone also use their employment as their Supervised Agricultural Experience Program. As part of their grade in capstone, students are required to keep detailed records of their hours worked, earnings and skills performed. In addition to the record books, capstone students are being evaluated at the end of each nine weeks by an evaluation completed by their employer.
