Flat Aggie Visits Southeast Kansas

Greetings from Southeast Kansas.  I visited the Small Family Farm where they grow wheat, corn, soybeans, grain sorghum and cattle.  I arrived a few weeks after they had finished planting corn and I was amazed at how big the corn was considering most of the farmers in Illinois hadn't got much planted yet!

 

 Farmer Randy even dug  up a plant, so I could see the roots.  The plant was pretty and green above ground, but I was surprised even more at all the long hairy roots that were underground.

I really liked that he showed me the corn seed that the plant had grown from and it was still attached to the plant!  I am pointing to it so you don't miss it.

 I saw lots of fields of pretty green grass and was told by Farmer Nicole that it was wheat.  Wheat that would be made into cookies, cakes, pizzas and bread.  She said in a month all the fields would be golden and the combines would be driving through the fields harvesting the wheat.

 

The Small Family has lots of cows.  I got to Kansas a little too late to help them give all the calves their shots.  Baby calves get vaccinations just like people to help keep them from getting sick. 

 

They were getting ready to check some cows to see if they were pregnant and I was ready to learn all about it!  Sometimes veterinarians, animal doctors, reach inside and feel if there is a calf, but this week the Small's were pulling a small amount of blood from the cow to be tested in a lab.  

 After Mr. Small collected the blood, he put it in one of these test tubes.

 There were a lot of tubes when we got done.

 I was really curious to see where they would get the blood from.  When I was sick once, they took blood from my arm, but cows don't have arms and they like to kick with their legs.  Farmer Randy said there was a vein that ran right through the middle of the cow's tail that he could get blood from.

 I got to meet one of the kid's calves named Winnie.  Winnie was fed by a bottle last year.  You can see she was holding one foot up.  She had a sore foot, so they gave her some medicine to make her feel better.

 They even let me help!

 I was amazed at the wide open spaces and all the grass everywhere.  The Small's told me the grass has always been growing there even when the Indians and buffalo were there!

 

 We visited some of the young cows.  They were a little scared of me at first.

 One did give me a kiss before I left.

The boys and I helped put vitamins and minerals in a tub for the cows.  The cows eat it everyday just like the Small boys take their vitamins.

 

I really had a good time with the Small's and they said if you had any questions, they would be happy to answer them.