Ohio

INDIANAPOLIS – Since third grade, Chrysta Beck of Archbold, Ohio, has raised broilers and layers to sell meat and egg products to local customers. As she got older and joined FFA, she developed a supervised agricultural experience (SAE) that would look into the health of poultry. But what started as research to assist her with personal production goals soon developed into a project with a vastly larger scope. It focused on U.S. and global poultry production and welfare. Beck’s work began when she was in ninth grade and started looking closely into broiler production factors and exactly how the birds grew. She also learned how to determine meat quality. By her senior year, Beck was investigating alternative methods for replacing antibiotics. This research has earned her top honors as she has been named a 2017 American Star in Agriscience. “I was looking into the gut health of the chick,” Beck says. “I was looking into the microbiology of chickens and doing probiotic research.” In her lab trials, Beck has been testing different types of bacteria to determine [...]