Bowles Wins State Proficiency Award in Agriscience Research – Animal Systems

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COLUMBIA, Mo., April 24, 2025  – Eli Bowles of Miller won the Missouri FFA Agriscience Research – Animal Systems Proficiency Award at the 97th Missouri FFA Convention.

Bowles, a senior at Miller High School, is the son of Andrew and Anna Bowles. He is a member of the Miller FFA Chapter. His advisors are Emily Krase and Jacob Noblitt.

For his supervised agricultural experience program, Bowles conducted a research project to determine which feed brand most effectively promotes growth in Cornish Cross broiler chicks. He raised 30 chicks, divided them into three groups, and fed each group a different feed: Purina Game Bird, MoorMan’s ShowTec, and Nutrena Meat Bird. Each bird was weighed weekly for six weeks to evaluate growth rates. His findings showed that Purina Game Bird feed had the highest average weight gain, while ShowTec feed produced birds with more desirable show qualities.

Throughout the experiment, Bowles was responsible for all aspects of care, including daily feeding and watering, as well as recording weekly weight data. One major shift in the project involved moving the chicks from an indoor space to an outdoor pen to prevent overheating, which required the construction of a new enclosure.

One of the challenges Bowles faced was chick mortality, which is a common issue in broiler production. To overcome this, he adjusted housing conditions and worked to maintain a consistent environment across all groups to ensure the accuracy of his results.

Bowles set three main goals for the project: to ensure consistent conditions across all groups, to maintain a regular weekly weighing schedule, and to gather results that would influence his future broiler projects. All goals were met successfully, and the results will be used to guide his future decisions in both show and meat production.

Although he does not plan to repeat the experiment, Bowles will continue to raise broilers for the youth fair and future SAE projects. He plans to use ShowTec feed for show birds and Purina Game Bird feed when raising broilers for meat. The knowledge gained through this project will continue to benefit his agricultural pursuits for years to come.

Proficiency awards recognize FFA members who excel as agricultural entrepreneurs, employees or volunteers while gaining hands-on career experience. Agriscience Research Animal Systems is one of 45 proficiency award areas recognized at the state level. FMC Corporation sponsored this award.

The Missouri FFA has 26,900 members representing 365 chapters. The national organization has more than 1,027,273 members representing 9,235 chapters in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The FFA makes a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education.

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