Grown Here at Home: Alleghany High School student wins heifer in scholarship competition

ALLEGHANY CO., Va. (WDBJ) - Shanna Adkins loves spending time with her heifer Stormie. She won the cow in a scholarship competition through the Virginia Hereford Association. It took some convincing before her parents gave her the okay to apply.

“They signed the paper for the scholarship because they didn’t think that I was going to win. I was just like, I’ll try. I don’t think I’m going to win either,” Shanna explained.

After the big win, Shanna’s family had to get to work.

“We started this operation, and we didn’t have nothin’. We didn’t even have a barn. We bought a barn and put a fence around it and here we are,” said Alan Adkins, Shanna’s father.

As part of the scholarship agreement, Shanna had to get Stormie artificially inseminated.

“If she has a heifer calf, I give it back to the association so that another scholarship recipient can get the calf, but if it’s a bull calf I’ll get to keep him,” Shanna said.

Stormie’s calf should be arriving in October, so time will tell. Shanna is a rising senior at Alleghany High school and the vice president of the school’s FFA chapter. The idea is for Shanna to grow a herd and use the profits to pay for college.

“Since Shanna has done this, I have more students who are asking about it and wanting to know about the Virginia Hereford and Heifer Association. It’s a fantastic thing they do. It really builds skills in the students and helps them decide whether or not a career path in this direction and something in agriculture might be for them,” explained Teresa Reed, AHS agriculture teacher and FFA advisor.

“It’s been awesome. It’s taught me a lot. It’s taught me how to be responsible. It’s definitely a lot of hard work, but I like it,” Shanna said.

The best part of this story is said best from a father’s heart.

“Stormie has really brought our family together,” Alan said.

And that’s something no scholarship can buy.

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