Category Archives: Agvocating
Purdue Milk Monday
Purdue Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow and Dairy Club held an event for Grand Alternative on Purdue’s campus. Here is a first hand account of the event through pictures. Check it out!
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Tippecanoe County Ag Days
Did anyone know that we have mint in Indiana? This is not a very common crop but it is very important to a lot of people. Mint oil is in our tooth paste, chewing gum, mouthwash, ice cream flavoring, and many other goods we buy every day.
So why am I telling you about this? Because mint is part of a unique program being put on by Tippecanoe County 4-H to teach local fourth graders about agriculture.
This upcoming Tuesday and Wednesday nearly 1,000 fourth graders from local elementary schools will take a trip to the Tippecanoe County Fair Grounds to learn about things such as mint farming, corn harvesting, and tractors and farm machinery. The event covers 18 different topics and also lets the kids get some firsthand experience with livestock animals.
As part of the Purdue Collegiate Farm Bureau, I got to go along with my fellow officers to teach the kids about mint production and it was a very neat experience. We brought posters of how the mint is harvested and then let them smell pure mint oil (supervised of course since it is very strong) and then gave them a few mint treats to take home. They loved it!
Our favorite part of the day was seeing the kids get so excited about learning new things. We had a table where we sat all of the mint products you could buy from the store and let the kids smell mint at the beginning and end of the line. The funniest thing was seeing the children going down the table and even trying to smell the boxes the mint stuff was packaged in even though it didn’t smell! Haha It was so cute because they just thought it was part of what they were supposed to be smelling even thought it was just a presentation example.
This year, Ag Days will be on April 5-6th from 9-3pm at the Fair Grounds exhibit building.
Members from Collegiate Farm Bureau are so excited to have been invited back to teach this year’s fourth graders about mint production.
So if you are in the area, make sure to come out to the Tippecanoe County Fair Grounds and see all of the fun exhibits and check the mint out for yourself!
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Indiana Family of Farmer’s Media Cow Milking Contest
♫ State Street’s Back…….Alright! ♫ (hopefully you’ll know the song I’m referencing here) ha-ha
Hey Everyone! Chelsea here, back from spring break and getting back into the swing of blogging. I hope everyone had a wonderful, relaxing spring break. What did you do for spring break? Did you check out any of the agritourism spots I told you about? Let me know in the comment box below!
To start off this week, I would like to share a neat event with you that happened on Monday at the Indiana State House.
As I told you earlier, this month is Ag Appreciation Month and National Ag Day was March 15th, and to celebrate this, the Indiana Family of Farmers partnered with several agricultural groups and held a Media Cow Milking Contest on the State House lawn!
Cool right? Indianapolis radio and television personalities got the chance to HAND-MILK a cow and see how much milk they could get in one minute.
Participants were:
- Dave Smiley, Smiley Morning Show, WZPL-FM;
- Tracy Forner, WISH-TV’s Indy Style;
- Kjerstin Ramsing, Fox 59’s Morning Show;
- John Stehr, WTHR; and Andi Hauser, WISH-TV’s Indy Style.
One other neat component to this contest was that Stella, the cow, was actually provided by the Purdue Dairy Club here on campus! A few club members also got to go along and help. I thought it was really great that Purdue got to be a part of this unique event!
Indiana State Fair Queen Sara Lynn Alford (second from left) and Johnson County dairyman Joe Kelsay, director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (far right) were also at the event and served as moderator and time keeper.
The winner was Tracy Forner from WISH-TV’s Indy Style. He managed to squeeze out 100 mm of milk during his allotted 1 minute of milking.
The Indiana Family of Farmers have a blog and the ISDA has a video from the event on their Facebook Page and I hope you’ll go watch it. It has more details from the event and shares some interesting facts about agriculture.
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1521487011691&comments
This event is just one of the many things the Ag Industry is doing to try to bridge the gap between farmer and consumer. Be sure to stay on the lookout for more events like this happening in your area!
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PREVIEW: National Ag Day!
Well, I hope you all are wearing your green today, but I wanted to take some time in today’s blog to tell you about another awesome event that will be taking place all next week—National Ag Week!
Normally, I would have waited until next week to write about this, but since we will be away for spring break I wanted to let you know about it now so you can start looking forward to it!
The American Agriculture Council is sponsoring this celebration week and will be holding events all over the United States March 13-19th. One special part of this week I wanted to highlight is National Ag Day, which will be March 15th.
The Agriculture Council of America (ACA) is an organization composed of leaders in the agriculture, food and fiber communities dedicated to increasing the public awareness of agriculture’s vital role in our society. The Agriculture Council of America and the National Ag Day program were started in 1973.
In getting ready for Ag Day, the ACA held a video essay contest as a way to give others a chance to share their agriculture story. This year’s winner was Kyle Trivino from California and his video was awarded the spotlight on their website and Facebook Page. Check out the video—it has some really neat facts about agriculture!
And to add on to the neat facts you heard in Kyle’s video, I have added some more of my own for you to enjoy:
- Lettuce is a member of the sunflower family.
- It takes 24 to 26 hours for a hen to produce an egg; there is 30 minutes between each egg-producing cycle.
- There are over 500 different types of bananas. That means if you ate a different kind of banana every day, it would take almost a year and a half to eat every one!
- In early colonial times, pumpkins were used as an ingredient for the crust of pies, not the filling.
- One of the most popular varieties of green asparagus is named after Martha Washington, the wife of George Washington
How neat! I didn’t even know about some of those! I really hope you guys go out and try to learn something new about agriculture. You’ll be surprised at everything that’s out there!
HAPPY (early) AG DAY EVERYONE!
P.S. Don’t forget to check back later to learn about “Agritourism” in Indiana and also make sure to check out Sarah’s blog as well!
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Wear Green WEDNESDAY!
Do you have your green shirt all ironed and ready to wear tomorrow? Well if you don’t already, you should! Tomorrow will be the 2nd Annual “Wear Green in Support of Agriculture Day” and everyone is encouraged to wear a green shirt to show your support.
I learned about this event through Facebook and am definitely planning on participating. This day was started by Rachel Erickson of the University of Wisconsin at River Falls and Barrett Smith of Kansas State University. Last year, they had 9,978 confirmed attendees and I am trying to help them make it even bigger this year by inviting YOU to wear GREEN too!
People all over the United States will be sporting their green to help this cause, and students at Purdue are joining in too! Jamie Fuchs, a senior in interdisciplinary agriculture and animal sciences said she will be proudly wearing her green attire and will be encouraging all of her friends to do so as well.
In addition to wearing green, Jamie supports agriculture by raising beef cattle on her family farm and one day hopes to manage her own cattle operation. But even if you aren’t directly involved in production agriculture, you can still be a part of agriculture!
Just by going to the store to buy groceries, or wearing your everyday clothes, you are supporting the agricultural industry—and wethank you for that!
This event has even received national coverage by beefmagazine.com and even RFD-TV, Rural America’s Most Important Network. Mark Oppold, RFD-TV News Director will be covering the event from February 21st through March 9th.
Will any of you be wearing green tomorrow? I really hope you will go check out the facebook event and then report back to me with either pictures or comments if you saw anyone on campus wearing green!
Also, if anyone sends me a cool picture of themselves wearing green tomorrow, I will feature them in my next blog!
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Awesome Jobs in Agriculture
When most people think of jobs in agriculture, they usually think of growing crops, raising livestock, or growing fruits and vegetables. While these are very popular jobs in agriculture, they aren’t the only careers that make up the industry. Today I wanted to share a few unique jobs in agriculture that you might now have known were considered Ag careers.
CNN Living compiled a list of cool jobs that pay well and out of the nine jobs they listed, four of them were in agriculture! Here’s some of the ones they listed along with my comments about how they relate to agriculture:
Unique Jobs in Agriculture:
Who wouldn’t want to be the creator of a tasty ale that will be imbibed by many the partygoer? Plus, you get to do taste-testing along the way, which is always fun.
You wouldn’t normally think this is related to agriculture, but you have to know about the kind of grain you are putting into your beer, which requires some agricultural knowledge about the taste, scientific properties, and growing process of the grain you are using.
2. Food scientist- Flavor Inventor
You might not have ever cared who creates all the different flavors of ice cream as long as the scoops keep appearing in your bowl. Well, food scientists spend their days in laboratories developing and perfecting new flavors so that low-fat birthday cake ice cream tastes good and not, well, low-fat.
Believe it or not, not everyone realizes that their ice cream is an agricultural product created from milk. Some people just assume that it comes from the grocery store, but companies all over are hiring food scientists to help their products become the best. There is actually a whole food science major here in Purdue’s College of Agriculture!
3. Sommelier- Wine Professional
Fine diners know that the perfect meal isn’t just about the entrée; it’s also about the glass of wine that accompanies each course. From the first taste of the cheese flight to the last bite of gelato, the right wine can elevate any meal to a new level.
Fear not. Sommeliers know everything about wines, from the vineyards they were pressed in to the best entrées to pair them with. They take courses and obtain certification to become bona fide experts on the subjects so you never have to look at a wine list with confusion in your eyes.
If you want to get your start in becoming a sommelier, you can start right here by enrolling in the Wine Appreciation class on Purdue’s campus. For more information, search for FS470 on Purdue’s website.
A crop duster, also known as an agricultural pilot, flies a light aircraft that is equipped for dusting and spraying crops with powdered insecticides, fungicides, seeds and fertilizers.
When crop dusting, you must be adept at flying low while avoiding trees, power lines, fences and other obstacles. Pilots perform take-offs and landings on country roads or fields instead of runways.
This is a good career that has a very low turnover rate and can lead to other piloting opportunities. Being an ag pilot is one of the most exciting jobs in aviation, but it requires tremendous skill and precision.
Did you know these jobs were in agriculture? If so, let me know how you heard about them! Or would any of you want to have a job like this? Your comments are always appreciated! 🙂
Also, make sure to check out my partner Sarah’s blog for more interesting stories coming from south of State Street!
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Break out the Blue Jackets-It’s National FFA Week!
(Originally published on February 23, 2011, links updated Feb 23, 2015.)
It’s a big week in the Ag world! This week we are celebrating National FFA Week.
Each year, FFA chapters around the country celebrate National FFA Week. The week-long tradition began in 1947 when the National FFA Board of Directors designated the week of George Washington’s birthday as National FFA Week in recognition of his legacy as an agriculturist and farmer. The first National FFA Week was held in 1948. Today, FFA Week always runs Saturday to Saturday and encompasses Feb. 22, Washington’s birthday.*
A majority of people have heard about the FFA organization, but most people assume that it’s just about kids who grew up on a farm and are only concerned with beef cows, big tractors and blue jackets. But this is definitely not the case!
FFA, which used to stand for (Future Farmers of America), has come a long way over the years. The main purpose of FFA is to make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their:
- Potential for premier leadership
- Personal growth
- Career success through agricultural education
By this point, you might be asking yourself, what IS the deal with those blue jackets they wear?
According to the National FFA Timeline and other sources, the jackets were originally created to be worn by the Fredericktown Band of the Fredericktown FFA Chapter, and soon the jackets caught on with other chapters. The Official FFA Jacket was adopted in 1933 as the Organization’s “Official Dress” and now serves as a symbol of professionalism and pride. If you want to read more about the jacket’s history, you can get it straight from the company who makes them- Universal Lettering Company.
To more about the history of FFA, check out their website: https://www.ffa.org/about/what-is-ffa/ffa-history
And in true FFA fashion, always remember to “Lead out Loud” this week with your “Blue Jackets, Gold Standards”—HAPPY FFA WEEK EVERYONE!
*Excerpt from http://www.ffa.org.
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FOOD CHECK-OUT WEEK!
To start off my posts this week, I wanted to share something really cool that’s happening THIS WEEK that not many people know about. It’s called Food Check-out Week and its sponsored by the Farm Bureau Organization.
Food Check-Out Week is a national program that is helping consumers find solutions to eating healthy on a stretched budget. National FCO Week is going on the rest of this week and I encourage all of you to check it out! There are several Food Check-out activities happening right here in Indiana, and they all go to a great cause.
All this week, Indiana Farm Bureau members will be stocking the shelves of charities like Ronald McDonald House, local food banks and shelters with food and cash donations. Counties will also be using this opportunity to spread the news of how every American benefits from the efficiency and productivity of our nation’s farm families.
Did you know that most American families earn enough income by mid-February to pay for their food for an entire year?!
Honestly, I didn’t either! Its things like this that Farm Bureau and their Women’s Leadership Committee are trying to help consumers think about when they are buying groceries.
Here are some other neat things they are doing around the area to help support this cause:
- Last year, the Marion County Farm Bureau gave away $1,000 in free groceries to one lucky member!
- Follow the hashtag #FCOW on Twitter to learn more about Food Check-Out Week,
- Connect on Facebook – for every fan, Farm Bureau will donate $1 to Ronald McDonald House.
- Their goal is to raise $3,500 by April!
- Supermarket demonstration stations –Check your local grocery!
Registered Dietitian Cynthia Chandler (L) offers tips on buying fresh produce during a pilot supermarket tour organized by the AFB Women's Leadership Committee.
This is a really neat program and can offer some very useful information for everyone—so get out there and “CHECK it OUT”!
McLennan County Farm Bureau -- McLennan CFB board members surprised local shoppers by offering to pay for the farmers' contributions to their grocery baskets.
boilermakerag 