Beef Grader Math

Here's a little different twist on Farmer Math this month that goes with the report where Flat Aggie followed a meat grader in Colorado.

Flat Aggie thought you guys might like to try out yield grading too! Here’s a couple problems if you want to try it out!

1.       Predict the yield grade. (This is given to you).

2.       Measure the ribeye. (Flat Aggie measured a couple for you).

3.       Based on the carcass weight, find out what size of ribeye is needed. (This is given to you).

4.       Find the difference between the ribeye size you measured, and the ribeye size that is needed. Multiply the difference by 0.3

5.       Determine the amount of kidney, pelvic heart fat. (We’ll give you this too)!

6.       A little addition and subtraction and some multiplication is all that’s left to do!

EXAMPLE:

Predicted Yield Grade: 4.2

Measured Ribeye: 13.5”

Required Ribeye: 12.5”

Difference: 13.5 – 12.5 = 1.0                 1.0 x 0.3 = 0.3

KPH:  -0.4

Final Yield Grade:  4.2 – 0.3 – 0.4 = 3.5 is the final yield grade!

Predicted Yield Grade: 3.6

Measured Ribeye: 14.4

Required Ribeye: 13.8

Difference: _________________________________________________________________

KPH: -0.4

Final Yield Grade: ___________________________________________________________

Predicted Yield Grade: 2.8

Measured Ribeye: 15.0

Required Ribeye: 15.0

Difference: __________________________________________________________________

KPH: -0.0

Final Yield Grade: ____________________________________________________________

Predicted Yield Grade:  4.3

Measured Ribeye: 17.2

Required Ribeye: 16.3

Difference: _____________________________________________________________________

KPH: - 0.4

Final Yield Grade: _______________________________________________________________

Predicted Yield Grade: 4.0

Measured Ribeye: 13.5

Required Ribeye: 12.5

Difference: ____________________________________________________________________

KPH: -0.3

Final Yield Grade: ______________________________________________________________

ANSWERS:

1.       14.4 – 13.8 = 0.6                       0.6 x 0.3 = 0.18  (Rounds up to 0.2)

Final Yield Grade: 3.6 – 0.2 – 0.4 = 3.0

2.       15.0 – 15.0 = 0.0                      0.0 x 0.3 = 0.00

Final Yield Grade: 2.8 – 0.0 – 0.0 = 2.8

3.       17.2 – 16.3 = 0.9                      0.9 x 0.3 = 0.27 (Rounds up to 0.3)

Final Yield Grade: 4.3 – 0.3 – 0.4 = 3.6

4.       13.5 – 12.5 = 1.0                      1.0 x 0.3 = 0.3

Final Yield Grade: 4.0 – 0.3 – 0.3 = 3.4

Pasture Pig Farmer Math 3

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 on a Pig Farm in Illinois.  Additional educational materials can be found in the post All About Pigs from The Illinois Farm Girl.

For additional Pig Farmer Math Questions on different levels, visit Pig Farmer Math and Pig Farmer Math 2.

1.  Flat Aggie helped build fence for the pigs.  One pen has two sides that are 20 feet long and two sides that were 40 feet long.  What is the perimeter of the pig pen?

2.  What shape is the shape of the pen in question 1?

3.  Flat Aggie helped build another pig pen that has all four sides that are 30 feet long.  What is the perimeter of the pen?

4.  What is the shape of the pen in question 3?

5.  The temperature outside the nursery was -20°F and the temperature inside was 70°F.  What is the temperature difference between the two?

ANSWERS:
 1.)  120 feet   2.)  rectangle   3.)  120 feet   4.)  square   5.) 90°F 

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.

-A Kansas Farm Mom
 

Dairy Goat Farmer Math 2

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 on a Goat Dairy in Wisconsin.  Additional educational materials can be found in the post All About Goats from The Illinois Farm Girl. 

For more Dairy Goat Math Questions see another Farmer Math Post.

1.  One gallon of goat milk weighs 8 pounds. How much does 2 gallon of milk weigh? 

2.  Goats often come as twins and triplets.  Flat Aggie watched 15 does have kids as twins. How many kids is that?

3.  Flat Aggie watched 10 does have triplets.  How many kids is that?

4. What is the total number of kids Flat Aggie saw born in question two and three? 

5.  Flat Aggie learned that dairy farmers get paid a bonus for higher butterfly in the milk.   The farmer sold 100 pounds of milk that was 3.5% butterfat.  How pounds of butterfat did they sell?

ANSWERS:
 1.)  16 gallons  2.)  30 kids  3.)  30 kids  4.) 60 kids   5.)   3.5 pounds

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.

-A Kansas Farm Mom
 

Flat Aggie 4-H 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 Travels to Kansas to learn about 4-H.

1.  Flat Aggie saw 4-H Geology display boxes.  The boxes had 30 rocks, fossils and minerals on cards arranged in 6 rows.  How many cards were in each row?

2.  Flat Aggie saw 4-H Entomology (insect) collections.  The display box had 60 insects arranged in 12 different groups (orders).  On average, how many insects were in each group (order)?

3.  Flat Aggie saw a barn quilt in the Arts and Crafts division that measured two feet by two feet.  How many square feet was the barn quilt?

4.  In the clothing project, Flat Aggie learned about pricing an entire outfit.  He saw a nice outfit he wanted to wear to the school program.  The pants cost $22, the shirt was $10, the tie was $15, the socks cost $1, the shoes cost $30, and the belt cost $8.5.  What was the total cost of the outfit? 

5. If he wore it 20 times, what would the cost per wear be?

ANSWERS:
 1.) 5 cards  2.) 5 insects  3.) 4 square feet  4.) $86.50  5.) $4.33 

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.

-A Kansas Farm Mom

Grape 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 Maryland for Grape Harvest.  Additional educational materials can be found in the post All About     from The Illinois Farm Girl.

 

1.  A Bin of grapes weighs 1000 pounds.  Flat Aggie helped pick 8,841 pounds of grapes.  About how many bins of grapes did Flat Aggie helped harvest?  Round to the nearest whole number.

2.  80 grapes weighs one pound.  How much does one grape weigh in ounces?

3.  One serving of grapes is .3 pound.  How many grapes in a serving?

4.  Flat Aggie helped harvest 8, 841 pounds in one day.  How many pounds could they harvest in 3 days?

5.  How many tons would the above answer be?  Round to the nearest whole number.

ANSWERS: 1.)  9 bins of grapes  2.) .2 ounces  3.) 24 grapes 4.) 26,523 pounds 5.) 13 tons


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.

-A Kansas Farm Mom
 

Sugar Beet 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 Learns About Sugar Beets.  Additional educational materials can be found in the post All about Sugar Beets from The Illinois Farm Girl.

1.  Sugar beets are planted in April and are ready to harvest the first of October.  How many months does it take fro sugar beets to grow?


2.  4 pound of sugar beets makes 5 ounces of sugar.  How much sugar can you get from 20 pounds of sugar beets?

3.  The tap root on a sugar beet is usually 4 feet long.  In really dry years, the root can be 10 feet long.  How much longer is the tap root in dry years?

4.  Farmers plant five sugar beet seeds per foot.  How many sugar beet seeds would you need to plant a row ten feet long?

5.  A sugar beet farmer delivered enough sugar beets to produce 3,285 ounces of sugar.  How many pounds would that be? (Rounded to the nearest whole number.)

ANSWERS: 1.) 6 months  2.) 25 ounces  3.) 6 feet  4.) 50 seeds  5.) 205 pounds

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.

-A Kansas Farm Mom
 

Dry Edible Bean Farmer Math

Farmer Math is a series of questions that go along with each Flat Aggie report.  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 For Dry Bean Harvest.  Additional educational materials can be found in the post All About Dry Edible Beans from The Illinois Farm Girl.

1.  Flat Aggie visited a farm that raises navy and black beans.  How many types of beans does the farm grow?

2.  The farmer planted 6 fields to beans.  Three fields were planted to Navy beans.  How many were planted to black beans?

3.  Flat Aggie helped haul five truckloads of beans on day one and six loads on day two.  How many truck loads of beans did Flat Aggie help haul?

4.  One serving of Navy beans has 8 grams of protein.  How many grams of protein in 2 servings of Navy beans?

5.  The Farmer planted the beans from May 30 to June 6.  How many days did he plant beans?

ANSWERS:
1.) 2 types of beans  2.) 3 fields 3.) 11 truck loads  4.) 16 grams 5.) 8 days

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.

-A Kansas Farm Mom

Chicken 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 in the Shenandoah Valley and Flat  Aggie Learns about Farmers helping Farmers.  Additional educational materials can be found in the post All About Chickens from The Illinois Farm Girl.

1.  The chickens take 35 days to reach their full size.  How many weeks is that?

2.  A full size chicken weighs 4 pounds.  How many ounces is that?

3.  There are 37,000 chickens per barn.  How many chickens are in 4 barns?

4.  There are 37,000 chickens per barn and they weigh 4 pounds when they are full grown.  How many total pounds of chicken are in a barn?

5.  A semi-truck can hold 50,000 pounds of chickens.  How many semi trucks would it take to haul all the chickens from one barn?  (Round to the nearest whole number)

ANSWERS:
1.) 5 weeks  2.)  64 ounces  3.)148,000 chickens  4.)  148,000 pounds  5.)3 trucks

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.

-A Kansas Farm Mom
 

Beef 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 Snowy Idaho.  Additional educational materials can be found in the post All About Beef from The Illinois Farm Girl.
Additional cattle math problems can be found: Cattle Farmer Math and Beef Cow Farmer Math.

1.)  The show heifer is fed 5 pounds of corn, 2 pounds of oats, 1 pound of soybean meal, 10 pounds of hay and 1/4 pound of minerals and vitamins.  How much feed is she fed in all?

2.)  Flat Aggie is helping vaccinate some bulls.  She needs enough vaccine for 15 bulls.  The dosage is 5 milliliters per bull.  How many milliliters are needed in all?

3.)  Flat Aggie has another vaccine that is 2 ml per bull.  To vaccinate 15 bulls, how many milliliters of this vaccine is needed?

4.)  The Malson Ranch in Utah gets eleven inches of rain each year.  What is the average amount of rain per month?  (Round to the nearest hundredth of an inch.)

5.)  Flat Aggie helped weigh 5 calves when they were born.  The weights in pounds were 90, 70, 60, 100, 80.  What was the average birth weight of the calves born?

ANSWERS: 1.) 18.25 pounds  2.) 75 ml  3.)  30 ml  4.)  .92 inches  5.)  80 pounds

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.

-A Kansas Farm Mom
 

Dairy Goat 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 Shan-dy's Corner Goat Dairy.  Additional educational materials can be found in the post All About Coming Soon from The Illinois Farm Girl.

1.)  The goat kids are fed 16 ounces of milk twice a day.  How many ounces of milk are they fed total per day?

2.)  Shan-dy's Corner has 200 goats, 80 cows, 45 chickens, 8 cats, 4 dogs and 3 horses.  How many animals are there in all at Shan-dy's Corner?

3.)  Does are fed 2 pounds of grain twice a day and 10 pounds of hay once a day.  How much feed are they fed in all each day?

4.)  Each doe produces 5 pounds of milk per day.  Flat Aggie helped milk 100 does each day.  How much milk did they produce in all each day?

5.)  While Flat Aggie helped at the goat dairy, there were 44 bucklings and 54 doelings born.  What percent of the kids born were doelings? (Round to the nearest whole number.)

 

ANSWERS:  1.) 32 ounces  2.)  340 animals  3.)  14 pounds  4.)  500 pounds  5.) 55 percent

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.

-A Kansas Farm Mom

Soybean Farmer Math Harder Edition

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.   This set of questions is a little more challenging than the usual set of questions. 

These questions follow the report Flat Aggie Visits Monsanto.  Additional educational materials can be found in the post About Soybeans.  Some easier soybean math questions can also be found Easiest Math and a little harder math.

1.  Farmers plant 140,000 seeds per acre.  How many seeds are needed to plant 20 acres?

2.  In 2014, 9.8 million acres of soybeans were planted in Illinois and 85.1 million acres were planted in the United States.  What percent of the US soybean acres were planted in Illinois? (Round to the nearest tenth.)

3.  Soybean growers near Ashton, Illinois planted 56,000 acres for soybean seed production.  When planting 140,000 seeds per acre, how many total seeds do they need?

4.  Write the above answer in scientific notation

5.  A seed bag says that it has 2,430 seeds per pound.  The bag has enough seed to plant 40 acres at a rate of 140,000 seeds per acre.  How much does the seed in the bag weigh in all? (Round to the nearest whole number.)

ANSWERS:

1.) 2,800,000 seeds  2.) 11.5%  3.) 7,840,000,000 seeds  4.) 7.84x10^9 seeds  5.)2,304 pounds

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.

-A Kansas Farm Mom

Flat Aggie Visits the Show Me Sisters

Flat Aggie is back from a great agventure in Central Missouri with the Show Me Sisters.  We try to show all aspects of agriculture, but with this one we want to give a disclaimer to the teachers and parents reading this to their kids.  Look for a paragraph with a similar warning:  Teachers and parents!!!  Please read one of the paragraphs before reading to your children.  You know better than us whether they (or you) are ready for the discussion that follows.  Keep in mind this was written by a high school Ag teacher who presents this to high school students.   We don't want to hide anything about farming, but also don't want to make anyone uncomfortable.

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 

Beef Cow Farmer Math

Cattle Farmer Math

Cow and Soybean Farmer Math

All About Cows