HENRY COUNTY SCHOOL SYSTEM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Susan Burton
Communications Director
Paris, TN- Senior Dakota Ables is wearing his FFA jacket as he walks into Chance Young’s Vet Science classroom at HCHS. He has recently been awarded the 2025 West TN Star in Agriscience as part of a lengthy and challenging process of essays, mock interviews, and multiple agriscience projects he has completed through the years.
Ables has participated in Future Farmers of America (FFA) since he was in middle school at Dorothy and Noble Harrelson Elementary School. His favorite agriscience project to date is comparing methods of storing hay. Since his family owns Cane Creek Farms, storing hay is an important part of feeding the cattle and making sure they get the proper nutrients from their hay bales.
Ables’ project studied the difference in hay stacking and its effects on the quality of the hay for the cattle. He compared different variables such as hay stacked in a barn versus hay stacked outside and haystacks in a single run versus a pyramid stack. He found that the pyramid stacks produced heat in the middle of the stack which cooked the hay and flushed the nutrients from the hay. He concluded that stacking round bales of hay outside in a single run produced the best results for his cattle. “You need to keep cattle healthy and finding out how to best stack the hay was the best way for me to do that.”
Ables is currently in a dual enrollment Residential Maintenance. program at the high school in partnership with the Tennessee College of Applied Technology at Paris. He plans to attend TCAT after graduation, complete his degree, and use this knowledge as he continues farming with his parents, Edwin and Brenda Ables.
The best advice he can give students who are looking into joining FFA is, “Step out and do new things. If you’re persistent, you’ll go far.”