Flat Aggie In Northern Missouri

March 27,2013
Flat Aggie is reporting back after visiting Laurie from Country Linked.  Be sure to stop by and tell her what a great job she did hosting Flat Aggie.  If you missed the Introduction to Flat Aggie, be sure to read the post to see what our first grade class is up to. -KFM

Dear Mrs.  Piatt,

Thank you so much for sending Flat Aggie to our farm.   We really enjoyed having her here with us this past week.  We showed her many different things and all over our farm.   Let me tell you what Flat Aggie learned and saw while she was here.

First off Flat Aggie arrived on a very nice day.  It was very warm out and our children, Wyatt (9), Kendall (6), and Tessa (3) were playing outside enjoying the sunshine.  On the day Flat Aggie left, we had very cold temperatures and two inches of snow on the ground.  Very typical here in Missouri to have extremes in temperatures in the same week.  

Here in northern Missouri we have rolling hills, nice flat farm ground and timber land.  Around our home we have pastures for our cattle and crop land for raising corn and soybeans.  This time of year we also have a lot of geese who like to come and visit on their way back up north.  We are currently not in the fields doing work and the cows all have had their babies, so this time of year is devoted to repairs, working cattle, cutting wood, feeding hay to the cattle and trying to not get stuck in the mud.

Flat Aggie was able to see Gpa (grandpa) feed hay to the cows.  We give the cows and their calves large round bales of hay every other day.  Flat Aggie is a lot smaller then the bales of hay!  Last summer was very dry here and we did buy hay off of other farmers who did not need it, but usually we grow and bale our own.      

The first big thing that she got to do was help us work calves.  This means that we ran each calf through the working chute so that they could be given their booster shots.  Just like you get shots from the doctor, the calves need shots to keep them healthy.  We worked two groups of calves and left another group to be worked later in the week.  In three weeks, these calves will be weaned from their mama’s.  This means that they are big enough to be on their own and no longer need milk.  This day was nice, just really, really windy!  This makes the calves a little harder the handle, but we try and make it as easy as possible on them because no body likes to get shots.  

Last week was also National Agriculture week.  On Tuesday, we took Flat Aggie and two baby pigs to the school so that we could talk to the students  about agriculture.  The students and teachers enjoyed seeing and petting the pigs.  Flat Aggie as well as the students learned many new things about pigs.  Things like a female pig who has not had babies yet is called a gilt and that there can be up to as many as 18 babies born to one mama.  Did you know that your crayons and glue are made from pig by-products?  Ask FA what else pigs give us.  

After being at the school, we then took Flat Aggie to a local area attraction.  Our historic covered bridge.  It used to be over a creek called Locust Creek, but to make sure that the 100+ year old bride would be around for years to come, it was moved away from the creek so that visitors can go and see it.  Flat Aggie, Wyatt, Kendall, Tessa and their cousin Drew all went to the bridge.  Horse drawn wagons used to use this bridge many years ago.  

Another fun thing that she did was to visit my husband, Seth, at his off the farm work.  Seth is a salesman for a seed company.  You know the seed that the farmers put in the ground to grow crops?  Well he is the one that makes sure farmers get the seed that they want from his company, Burrus Hybrids.  On this day he was in a large warehouse where the seed is stored until the farmer is ready to have it brought to his farm.  This time of year farmers are getting their equipment ready to go to the fields and they need to have the seed handy for when the time is right to start planting.  The warehouse can hold thousands of bags of seed.  Each bag can weigh up to as much as a 1^st grader!  Flat Aggie enjoyed seeing all of the seed bags and containers and even got to sit on the forklift.

Flat Aggie arrived on beautiful day, but by the end of her time here, the weather was not very nice for being out side or doing much farm work.  FA did help Wyatt with one last thing before she left though.  Wyatt bought a pig for his 4-H project and was needing to name him.  After many suggestions from friends and family, he finally settled on a name and Flat Aggie was there to reveal it.    

I hope you enjoyed hearing about our farm and what Flat Aggie did while she was here.  If you have any questions, please let me know.  

Sincerely your new friends from Missouri,

Seth, Laurie, Wyatt, Kendall  and Tessa Link

www.countrylinked.wordpress.com

-A note from KFM:
Here are some additional pictures that were taken during Flat Aggie's time with the Link's in this post.

Didn't Laurie and her family do a great job of hosting and showing Flat Aggie around?!
Be sure to find her on Facebook as well at Country Linked.

Be sure to check out Flat Aggie's other adventures in American Agriculture:

• Northern Missouri
• Northeast Kansas Dairy
• High Tech in Nebraska
• New Hampshire Farms
• Kentucky 
• Delaware
• California

• Introduction to Flat Aggie