Grass is cool!

Since making the transition from grad school to "big kid world", I'm quickly learning (just as everyone told me) that I spend 80% of my working day dealing with grass. For this animal science girl from SW Kansas, this is a big deal and the learning curve is pretty steep! :) I am welcoming this challenge with open arms and am discovering that grass is actually really cool! This week I have been at a pasture and forage crop conference and have had the opportunity to see a lot of different forages and forage systems.



We toured the Overton, TX experiment station.



I found these friendly ladies! The quality of cattle at the station was exceptional!



Some of the F1 tiger striped heifers. (This results from breeding a Brahman cow to a Hereford bull or vise versa)



Looked at a lot of different grasses, clovers, and identified several weeds.



Toured the 7P ranch which was gorgeous!



I had a great time and enjoyed the chance to see agriculture in a different part of the US!

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The CHICKadees have arrived!!

Today is an exciting day at the office...WHY?? The baby chickens for the 4-H Chick-Chain project came in the mail! Thats right, the US Mail! We weren't expecting the chicks until yesterday and we got a call this morning from the postmaster saying, "Can you please come get your chicks, now??". For those of you who have been around baby chicks you can atest to the fact that baby chicks, for such little bodies, they can make quite the racket! This reminds me of when I was little and we would order baby chicks. My brother and I would sit around with a chicken catalog and pick out the ones we wanted to buy. Once the order was placed we would wait in anticipation for the big day when we would get the phone call from the postmaster.
What is Chick-Chain? It's a project that 4-Hers can sign up for. They pay a small fee upfront and have to attend a mandatory meeting before receiving their chicks. At the meeting we cover chick care, management, the equipment they will need to purchase and how to build a "safe place" for their chicks once they get them home. It's sort of like preparing for a new baby - you have to get a room ready, buy food, get waterers, feeders, a heat lamp, wood chips, etc. The kiddos will pick up their chicks on Friday afternoon and feed them for about 20 weeks. The chicks are breeds that will end up being laying hens and roosters. This is neat because it gives the kids an opportunity to start their own flock! The kids will take home aproxamately 10 chicks and then bring they back for the county fair. There they will show their chickens and be rewarded for their efforts by getting to sell a few chickens to people in the community. It's a neat project that teaches responsiblity, record keeping, and many other virtues!

Happy National Ag. Day!

In lieu of Agriculture Day, I spent the morning visiting with grade schoolers and middle schoolers about Agriculture. To say I was impressed would be an understatement! In this county, the school system has realized that Agriculture is the driving force of the economy and provides MANY jobs to residents of the county. As a result, they have made it a priority to educate students about agriculture in the classroom. They have a robotics team where they built a robot to catch genetically modified bugs...how cool is that?? The kids learned how to market their robot by finding its relevance to the farmer. One of the high school science teachers was present teaching the kids about hatching baby chicks. At our booth, we talked about row crops, horticulture, the 4-H program, and livestock. They also had the USA Rodeo Queen there signing pictures, a couple of the horse club members who had brought a horse and some equipment to share with the kids, and a goat producer who hauled a few goats to town! It was amazing to me how interested and how educated these students were about agriculture. They knew where their food came from and they appreciated it!
I taught them a little joke/conversation to have with people they run into: (student asks) "Where would you be without agriculture?" (the answer) "Naked and hungry!" Then I instructed the kids that they should explain further by going over the articles of clothing the person is wearing and how it is made (from cotton, leather, etc.) as well as the food they eat on a daily basis. The kids seemed to enjoy the joke....probably only because it had the word "naked" in it and they were middle schoolers. I'm sure the teachers will appreciate me for that one!