At a young age, Riley Lewis was mentored by his father and grandfather on calf care, management, feeding and maintenance. The LaGrange, Ind., resident was soon working on his home dairy and crop farm, Lewis Century Stock Farm.
As he grew older, he learned more skills that he could employ on the farm and began to have more and more responsibility that even included managing and training employees.
Lewis is currently assistant farm manager for Lewis Century Stock Farm and runs the farm in his dad’s absence. When he first started, feeding calves was his sole responsibility. Prior to his freshman year in high school, his family remodeled the farrowing house into a calf barn. Lewis soon began taking on responsibility for the health of the calves, and they began to see improvement in calf survivability. Wanting to learn more about calves, Lewis’ vet taught him procedures to help treat his calves when illness develops. Today, Lewis feeds and manages the calves as well as taking care of the newborn calves.
Occasionally he also assists with calving, and he has worked on developing sustainable breeding practices.
Working with his dad, Lewis has established a way for him to increase his equity so he can eventually return to the farm and buy into it. He is currently attending Purdue University and studying agricultural economics.
Lewis is the son of Debbie and Brian Lewis. He is a member of Prairie Heights FFA Chapter, led by advisors Ben Leu and Ron Noll.
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