Age: 17
Hometown: Conway, Mo.
Parents: Terry Yelvington and Lori Cook
Siblings: Two brothers and seven sisters
High School: Conway High School
Science Advisor: Sonya Barker
What is your involvement in agriculture? “I’m a junior at Conway High School and a member of the GoCaps program which allows students to job shadow in various area offices or businesses. I recently spent three weeks working in the Laclede County Farm Service Agency I learned about cattle production, rotational grazing, soil types, soil health, and ways to prevent or slow erosion.
“My family had a farm many years ago. Today, they have a small garden.”
Work with pollinators: After watching a video on the internet, Garrett became concerned about the endangered state of the Monarch butterfly, a major pollinator, and a concern for anyone raising crops in need of pollination.
“My science teacher helped me to look at more videos to figure out how to raise Monarch butterflies by taking their eggs from butterfly milkweed plants and placing them in containers. You have to keep the different stages separated in the containers and when they reach the chrysalis stage, they hatch and have to dry their wings for about an hour. Then they are anxious and ready to go so you open the door and they fly away.”
Garrett released 150 Monarch butterflies in his first attempt to raise them.
“In the wild, the newly hatched butterflies only have a 2 to 10 percent survival rate. I didn’t lose any of the ones I raised so they had a 100 percent survival rate. I plan to do this again, raising and releasing more butterflies the next time. These pollinators are so important to all plants and crops. Their numbers have decreased in recent years primarily due to our activities, so we need to work together to help them survive. Otherwise, future generations might not have any Monarch butterflies, if they become extinct.”
Future plans: Garrett would like to have his own butterfly garden where he could teach others how to raise more Monarchs, and make and post videos showing others how to do this.
“In college, I’d like to study environmental science or ecology and maybe go to law school and become an environmental lawyer.”
