School-Based Enterprise
Indian Creek High School, Trafalgar
Head of Cattle Cared For
Since 2018 Launch
Pounds of Beef Processed
Since 2018 Launch
Earned from Outside Retail Sales
Since 2018 Launch
At Indian Creek High School, a student-led business literally puts food on the table.
Once or twice each month, the student body at the Johnson County school dines on beef raised by classmates as part of Creek Cattle Company (CCC), the school’s student-led agriculture business. In fact, the CCC burgers are one of the cafeteria’s more popular choices, and other menu items based on the program’s ground beef also are a hit.
“They just tried a meatball sub this last time,” says Joe Dunn, the Indian Creek agriculture teacher who oversees the program. “It went over very well.”
CCC gives students hands-on agriculture-industry experience through a livestock operation that has cared for more than 30 head of cattle and processed nearly 10,000 lbs. of beef since it was launched in 2018. The business has sold most of its beef to the school at market price to support its operations, but it also offers choice cuts of meat to the public. To date, CCC has earned $15,000 from outside retail sales.
Students have driven the operation since it started, shortly after a school board member saw a similar program at Maconaquah High School in Miami County and suggested that Indian Creek create its own. Dunn charged agriculture students with getting things rolling, and they responded by putting together a business plan, drawing up a logo, and pitching the plan to the administration.
The community provided some start-up funding, with grants coming from foundations and businesses, and local business leaders stepped up to serve on an advisory board, mentor students, provide expert advice, and make sure the students’ lessons and experiences align with what they and the marketplace need. For example, Tiffany Ankney, a Senior Account Specialist at Farm Credit Mid-America, gives talks to the students about business finances, farm accounting, and keeping good financial records.
Creek Cattle Company is a full-blown cattle producer with students doing everything from acting as C-suite leaders to providing manual labor.
While Indian Creek agriculture classes begin in seventh grade, participation in one of its four Agriculture CTE program pathways – Agriscience Animals, Agriscience Plants, Horticulture, and Ag Mechanical and Engineering – begins in ninth grade with an introductory-level course. The real hands-on experiences begin in a student’s sophomore year, with succeeding years offering deeper involvement. Each student is required to spend a certain amount of time feeding and caring for the cattle, along with other responsibilities such as ordering supplies, marketing, working with local farmers to add to the herd, making presentations to the public, and building structures.
Indian Creek Principal Luke Skobel says that, while CCC equips students with farm skills, the CCC experience prepares them for the working world in general. “It lets the kids solve problems and work with other entities,” he said. “I would bet that most of the kids that go through the program, they’re going to get offered a job just about every time they interview because they communicate so well.”
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