Herds of cows have been popping up all over Turlock and the organization responsible is Turlock High School’s Future Farmers of America club.

However, the club has not been placing fake cows on lawns throughout the community without reason. The local FFA chapter is hoping the cows will help them raise money for the National FFA Convention later this year.

“We were just trying to think of something new and different, so we switched it up a bit,” said THS FFA member Gabriella Borges. “We didn’t want to do just another candle catalogue again.”

The club got the idea of “herding” from “flamingoing,” a fundraising idea that involves participants paying money to flock their neighbors’ and friends’ yards with plastic flamingos.

THS FFA club members simply replaced the pink flamingos with cow standups in order to create their own unique concept of “herding.”

When the cows are placed on the targeted lawn, the resident is given an opportunity to donate to THS FFA or designate another address for the cows to be herded. The cows “graze” on the resident’s lawn for 24 hours, and then they are transferred to the next designation.

 “Overall, the community has really loved them, especially families with young children,” said Borges. “Some families have even put food and water out for the cows, which I think is really cute.”

So far, the cows have helped the THS FFA raise $13,000 to send 28 students to the convention at the end of next month. However, the club hopes to reach their $20,000 fundraising goal by mid October.