The Show Me Sisters did a great job of explaining their beef farm, but we also know that we have a wide range of ages in our audience and don't want to make anyone uncomfortable. :) My boys knew all about this stuff at age three, but some kids are ready at age 16.
We welcomed Flat Aggie to our farm in central
Missouri! She has a great time exploring the beef farm with us! She spent part
of the time on our beef farm and then traveled to our jobs with us as well!
The first stop on Flat Aggie’s visit was to my
classroom. I am the oldest of the Show-Me Sister’s and I work as an Agriculture
Teacher. There are two agriculture teachers at my school. The average class
size of each grade is 35-40 students. I teach agriculture classes to grades
8-12. Right now, my Ag I (first time students in Ag Class) is hatching EGGS!
Flat Aggie helped candle the eggs, set the eggs in the incubator, and properly
regulate the temperature and humidity so the eggs will develop into chicks and
hatch properly and healthy. The eggs will hatch in 21 days. Did you know that
you can’t put eggs you buy in the story into an incubator to hatch? They are
not fertilized by a rooster! Only eggs fertilized by a rooster will hatch and
even if they have been fertilized the eggs are safe to eat if they have been
handled properly. How cool is that!
Next, she headed to work with the youngest of the
Show-Me Sisters, Nicole. She works at a grain elevator, where she is in charge
of selling and buying all the grain. Nicole has to watch the markets so she can
give a good price to all the local farmers. Flat Aggie helped her weigh in
trucks and even load some feed for customers.
Flat Aggie helped take care of the cows and calves
too on our family farm! Nicole counted the cows to make sure they were all
there and healthy.
We feed the cows and calves hay each night. Hay is
dried grass that has been cut and rolled into a bale. We feed big round bales.
They are stored in our hay barn and then fed using a tractor.
The bales are
kept together by several pieces of string called baler twine; we cut the
strings off the bales before they are fed to the animals.
We also have
a bull and several heifers with our herd. A bull is a mature male animal that
can reproduce. A cow is a mature female that has had a calf. A heifer is a
young female that has not had a calf and a baby is called a calf. A cow is
pregnant for about 9 months before the calf is born.
We have our calves in the fall so the bull is put
with the herd starting in December. The calves stay with the cow until they are
big enough to be weaned and they don’t need their mom’s milk anymore. Flat
Aggie helped us check the calves and make sure they were all eating correctly
and still healthy.
We also have steers that we are feeding out to sell
for beef.
Teachers and parents!!!
Steers are males
that have been castrated (which mean they have had their reproductive organs
removed). We castrate them when they are small. The pain is somewhat like going
to the doctor and having a cavity filled. It has some pain, but not very much
at all!
OK, it is safe to read out loud again. Whew!
We feed the steers grain to make them grow quickly
and make the meat tasty! The steers get fed grain and hay in the evening.
Once the steers have reached around 1500 pounds,
they get hauled to the butcher shop! The meat that comes from cattle is called
beef. Different cuts of meat include ground beef, T-bone steak, beef roasts,
and much more!
We treated Flat Aggie to some homegrown ground beef
we grilled and some fun while we rode horses.
We had a great time with Flat Aggie and enjoyed
having her visit our farm. She learned about how we take care of our cattle and
strive to keep them healthy. Our animals are important to us! Learn more about
our farm and adventures by following The Show-Me Sisters on Facebook.
Want to extend the learning further? Check out
No comments:
Post a Comment
I would love to hear what you think. Leave me a comment.