WTF? Where's the Food Without the Farmer?

I love great stories about advocating the agriculture industry.  So here is one to share.  I love farmers.org has set up "agvocating" days on university campuses across the United States.  Today was their second WTF Day.  Which stands for Where's the Food Without the Farmer.  They get students who are interested in the agriculture industry to go out and advocate Ag and engage conversation with those that are not as well informed.  It was very encouraging watching all the students tweet about how successful the day was on each campus.

It is a great concept and I think it would be great if all universities took the lead on this and joined the conversation of "agvocating".  With the recent BSE (mad cow) issue in California it was amazing to see all the agvocates jump to action with informing the public of the facts and where they could go to find information if they had questions.  It definitely shows how strong of an industry Agriculture is and that producers support each other and stick together.  What a GREAT industry!

If anyone has questions about BSE I encourage you to go to BSEinfo.org to find all your information and facts.  I will be blogging about this in much more detail coming up in my next blog post.  But until then....Eat Beef, Drink Milk, Be Happy!!!

Stand Up for Agriculture

I find it so empowering when groups come together to stand up for things that they believe in, especially when it comes to agriculture.  Recently a group of students at Texas A&M University came together to be "agvocates" for agriculture with a slogan Farmers Fight.  They want to encourage consumers to ask questions to producers about where their food comes from.

Check out their video and don't be afraid to ask where your food comes from....

You can also follow their blog for more information here.

It's Turkey Time!!!

Holy busy life it has been.  This is my disclaimer as to why I have been absent lately on the blog.  There has been so much going on out there in the Ag world and so much to talk about such as the huge debacle on Lean Finely Texture Beef that the media likes to refer to as "pink slime" and last weekend was Michigan Beef Expo.  So Monday you will get to hear my rant on LFTB and I'm sure that all of you are BEYOND excited....I can tell!  But until then.........

It's that time of year again....no not Thanksgiving but opening day of Turkey Season!!  I am about to go on my first turkey hunt and I am beyond excited!!!  I want nothing more than for that huge tom to come walking in front of me and you better believe I'm gonna get that baby mounted.

So this past weekend we went out practicing shooting and learning all the aspects of the hunt.  So I was given a Benelli 12 gauge semi auto to shoot and was only told it may have a LITTLE kick.....ha! No it had a MAJOR kick.  Pretty sure I thought it broke my shoulder, jaw, and eardrum all at the same time.  But after a couple shots it didn't hurt that bad.  So not to brag but my first two shots nailed the bird...

So after that they taught me how to call a turkey.  This is quite different then I ever imagined.  I've been goose hunting and so I thought you would have a turkey call like how you call geese.  Negative you use this pencil looking thing on a slate.  It was quite intriguing to learn.

So that was my weekend and April 23 can't come soon enough!!!

Where is my milk from??

So I have been slightly absent from the blogging world lately but it seems as though there is not enough time in the day to even breath let alone post anything.  However on of my fellow Ag twitter friends posted a tweet that caught my eye and I wanted to share with all of you.

Now I realize that this is old and has been out for a while but it is still really neat and want to share with those of you that have not heard of this.  There is a website out there that will actually tell you where your milk came from.  This is pretty neat because you can see how close your milk was processed to you. 

I just checked my gallon of milk on the website and it was processed in Rochester, Indiana at Dean Foods, Co.  That is only an 1.5 hours away so not far at all!!  Working within the dairy industry I like this idea because any way to help inform consumers and bring a positive relationship between producers and consumers is a great advantage. 

So all of you go check your fridge for a gallon of milk, get the stamped on code and go to www.whereismymilkfrom.com and see where its from....how fun!!!

It's Ohio Ag Week!! Learn some fun facts!!

This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend Ohio Farm Bureau's Young Ag Professionals Conference.  I was pretty excited because they had some pretty informative looking seminars that I wanted to attend.  This was quite the short trip because I learned a few sad things about myself that I feel I should start working on, such as........1. If you dropped me off in Michigan I would be able to find my way home, send me to Columbus and I get lost in Lima.....sad when you have lived in Ohio most of your life.  2. Put me at a Michigan Farm Bureau conference and I would know a handful of people.....put me at an Ohio conference and I knew NO ONE!! It actually was a great experience because I got to meet many new people and learn some new info about Ohio agriculture and what opportunities are out there.

That leads me in into what I wanted to share with all of you in this post...It is Ohio Ag Week!!!  It is great when we can dedicate weeks or days or even months to Agriculture!! As I feel everyday should be dedicated its nice to inform others of these dedicated weeks.  So in honor of Ohio Ag Week I thought I would share some great Ohio Ag Facts with you from Ohio Farm Bureau.

• 1 in 7 Ohioans have an agriculture-related job
• The average herd of cattle consists of 290 head
• 1,155,900 acres of beans were harvested in 2011
• 83,981,000 acres of corn were harvested in 2011
• 45,705,000 acres of wheat were harvested in 2011

These are just a few of the facts I found. Visit United States Department of Agriculture for more facts as well!!!

Lab Grown Beef?.....I'll take mine on the hoof please!

There have been many reports in the news lately about lab grown beef.  Some scientist over in the Netherlands is attempting to grow a hamburger in a petri dish from the stem cells of cattle.  He claims that it will be beneficial because it will save animals.  I don't know about you but I enjoy a delicious burger that is grown safely, naturally, and nutritiously. 

He claims that he will have a full hamburger grown by this fall with a price tag of already over $330,000 invested.  I feel that this will not be a very cheap hamburger.  What is wrong with raising cattle for human consumption anyway?  Not only does it provide a valuable protein for a balanced diet but it also provides many important and essential by products.

I personally feel that beef should be grown naturally and I don't believe growing a hamburger in a petri dish is very natural.  Whether you agree or disagree I would love to hear your thoughts!

Guest Post: FFA....Through the Eyes of an Ag Teacher

For all of you who may not know, this week is National FFA Week.  This was one of my favorite times during school because the Vo-Ag class would have a ton of activities going on throughout the week: such as an FFA spirit week, small animal petting zoo, we would serve breakfast for the faculty and staff, and many other exciting activities.  In honor of this wonderful week I thought it would be a great idea to have a guest post from an Ag teacher and I found Ohio's finest to share her thoughts!  Meet Jessica Tracey from North Central FFA

"With FFA Week upon us, I find it essential to do a little “public education” on the organization itself, and why this week is celebrated nationally. As an agriculture instructor, I commonly find myself engaging in conversations with student’s parents where they recall their fond memories of “Vo Ag” and FFA. Usually the stories are of setting things on fire in the ag shop, or doing something mischievous on a FFA trip that I would no doubt kick my students out of my program for. I usually just laugh and explain how much has changed since their days in the program.
In 1988, the Future Farmers of America changed their name to the National FFA Organization to reflect the growing diversity among FFA members as well as the agriculture industry itself. There are FFA chapters in each of the 50 states, as well as Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Yes, there are FFA chapters in Chicago, New York City, and various other large cities where one would not think an agricultural organization would be found. The National FFA is home to over 500,000 members, making it the largest youth organization in the world! We see ourselves less as of a group, or “club,” and more of a family with one common goal: to spread the word about the amazing industry that is agriculture, and why it’s so important to us, and should be important to everyone.
Now in my sixth year of teaching, I entered into this profession to share my passion for agriculture with others, and to show students that it does indeed impact every aspect of their life. Also, FFA was what occupied most of my time in high school; I was by no means athletic, and I worked at a local veterinary clinic after school, so what extra time I did have was limited. I guess you could say that FFA broke me out of my “shell.” I was pretty quite and very focused on academics in high school...and probably borderline social phobic. By competing if judging contests, and being a part of something bigger, I began to develop leadership skills and was no longer afraid to make myself heard. I chose this occupation to provide students the opportunity to experience what I did, and develop a love and appreciation for agriculture.
I could go on for hours about how teachers are taken for granted and people view them as “glorified babysitters,” and how that’s wrong; but I won’t. Teacher’s shouldn’t be chastised for getting the summer off...anyone else could have gotten their degree in education, and besides, ag teachers DON’T get summers off! Most ag teachers work on what is called “extended time,” I have 25 extended days each school year, I probably work 60 or more extra days each year. People, students especially, have no idea how much extra time is put into being a FFA advisor. I spend numerous amounts of my personal time and money ensuring that my students are given the best FFA experiences I can offer them.
The most common thing I hear from students that are contemplating taking an ag class is “But I don’t want to be a farmer” and I say “Great, becasuse I’m not going to teach you to be a farmer!” Agriculture has become so much more than farming, and the diversity in our ag classes is a reflection of that. Don’t be afraid of the unknown, talk to your local FFA advisor if you have questions and sign up for an ag class, you won’t regret it!"

                               A full house at National FFA Convention held in Indianapolis, IN

Some of the greatest parts of being in FFA is getting to attend judging contests. Here are a couple  

students during the Soils Judging.

And you cannot forget the Corduroy Jacket!!