Cattle Farmer Math

In an effort to make math more interesting for kids and to make my kids understand that math really is important, I have started a series of Farmer Math questions to go along with the Flat Aggie reports.  These are patterned after the blog Bedtime Math.  Some of the questions are easy enough for pre-schoolers and sometimes I come up with some to even challenge high school seniors.

These questions follow the report Flat Aggie Visits a Manitoba Beef Farm.  Additional educational materials can be found in the post All About Beef.

Flat Aggie has decided to follow a calf number 101 on the Nelson Ranch a little further.  I think this math lesson may challenge some of my older readers to think.

1.  Flat Aggie has enough ear tags for Calf 101 plus 2 more, but 12 calves were born overnight. How many more eartags does he need to make, so that all the calves that are born will have an eartag? 

2.  Calf 101 weighed 65 pounds at birth and 650 pounds at weaning.  What is his total weight gain?

3.  Calf 101 is weaned at 205 days of age.  What is his average daily gain (rounded to the nearest hundreth)? (Average daily gain is the average amount of weight he gained each day for the 205 days)

4.  Calf 101 weighed 650 pounds at the Nelson Ranch and was shipped on a trailer to a neighboring farm where he was weighed again and only weighed 640 pounds.  How many pounds did he shrink?

5.  What percent  of his weight did he shrink? (Percent Shrink is the percentage of an animal's weight that is lost during transport from one place to another relative to its full live weight before it was transported)

If you are a teacher or homeschooler that would like more information to go with the Flat Aggie reports, send me a message on my contact form.  Along with the report and the Farmer Math questions, we send each teacher an additional page of activities, crossword puzzles and sometimes a few hands on activities.

ANSWERS
1.) 10 eartags  2.) 585 pounds  3.) 2.85 pounds per day  4.) 10 pounds  5.) 1.5%

-A Kansas Farm Mom