By Emily Ford
eford@salisburypost
South Rowan High School junior C.T. Welch may have found his calling.
Welch spent one morning last week hanging off the back of a large farm vehicle called a transplanter, placing a strawberry seedling into each hole made by the machine.
Although the heavy equipment crawled along at about 2 miles per hour, Welch said he had the best assignment on planting day.
“I had the funnest job out there,” said Welch, who takes two agriculture classes at South. “If someone would pay me to do it, that would be my job the rest of my life.”
Welch and dozens of other South students planted about 1,000 strawberry plants as part of a collaboration with the N.C. Research Campus in Kannapolis.
The largest agricultural undertaking in the high school’s history, the project will allow students to take the plants from seedlings to harvest, conducting scientific studies as they go and eventually selling the berries at school and farmers markets.
“We are doing real and relevant experimentation and collecting data,” said David Overcash, one of two ag teachers at South.
Read more in Saturday’s Post.

To see photos, click here.