Author: Taylor Apple

Describe ways your fellowship has changed you. Consider how you collaborate with peers, deliver instruction and learn about STEM careers.

Planning for this Ag Day event has got me stressed out I like to be in charge of everything normally and do it my way.  I have learned how to be a leader with my parents from our FFA alumni group to give them jobs to do as well as students.   I have to be more clear with my instructions so I do not set them up for failure or disappointing me.  This ag day im hoping will open up eyes of my students as well as others to see all the things agriculture has to offer.

Describe a moment when your students experienced an “Ah-Ha” or “light bulb” moment because of something you taught them. • Did that moment grow from your experience as a Kenan Fellow? If so, how?

As you know my project does not consist of a normal days lesson plan its an Ag day.  I have had lots of students working on getting this day planned and they have learned many things along the way.  Like today for instance we were mapping out the layout for the day and they were amazed at everything that was going to be at our event.  My students have really taken pride in the work they are doing to get ready for this day.  I have select students in charge of the animals, tractors, games, plant sale and much more.   Im so glad to see them working so hard to meet this goal.

Time is ticking and Ag day will be here so soon!

Has your knowledge of career opportunities changed as a result of your internship experience? Please explain.

Yes most definitely! This summer I was shown so much in the Ag field and got to learn how they are all different from one another.  Everyone had very different and very interesting stories about how they got started in their agribusiness.  It was really mind blowing to see how far they had come.  These stories would be great motivators to share with my students to know they could start from nothing just like some of the people I visited this summer.

Respond to this prompt. Describe your internship experience. • What was the most interesting moment? • What was the biggest challenge? • What is your biggest take away?

Our internship with Farm Bureau was different compared to others.  We were visiting agribusinesses in our county to learn about our countries agriculture.  I can say my most interesting visit was to Henry Vines farm when I suited up in a smurf suit to walk through their chicken house.  My biggest takeaway has been the amount of variety one county has in agriculture.  I have loved learning more about what all goes into and comes from the agriculture industry in this county!

There are many challenges and successes that I’m experiencing with developing my product which is the Community Ag Night.

First some challenges include packing a ton of really cool things I have learned into one event. Second finding ways to make it a high schooler friendly event, do I gear it toward them or have them be the leaders and they teach the K-8 kids??

For my successes so far…  I have tons of people that are willing to do anything to help with the event next spring.  I also have a basic idea of what I want the event to look like, just not sure how to make that work.

I am open to any ideas or comments!

RTP is a booming place!  This week we visited Bayer they have some really cool things going on inside of a huge facility.  I have learned so much, meet some really smart people and can’t wait to share cool experiments with my students.  

More details to come later here are a few photos.  

Last week we visited multiple farms, we saw 4 different beef cattle options.  All of these were tailored to what the farmer wanted and what worked best for them.  Randleman farm which I previously mentioned was the first one and they raise their beef to sell from their farm and to other local retail places.  They also now are selling some to first hand foods and on occasion will just sell a cow at market.

The second “type” was observed at the ACCA Barn here there were about 5 farmers that brought all their steers together that had been sold as a whole group to someone in Tennessee.  All of these steers were about the same age, size and weight.  Since they were selling in a larger group they got a little higher price per head.  This method works great for smaller farmers with small groups of cattle ready at one time.

The third operation was at Eric McPhersons farm right across the street from the cattlemens barn.  He raises broilers and beef cows.  He has 2 chickens houses, it seems that dont require as much work as others I have seen in the past- no eggs to pick up every day.  They do get checked on about 4 times a day but everything in the house from the heating, cooling, watering and feeding are all automated.  He has about 100 head in the pasture we visited all about the same age and size that will be ready to sell in August.  He has a spring and fall calving season so they are grouped by those two seasons.  He also owns a MacTire in Snow Camp while farming.

The fourth operation we visited was Henry Vines farm.  He has chickens also but they lay eggs and are sent to be sold in grocery stores as EggsLands Best – Cage Free, Organic.  This was a very interesting operations itself.  They have 2 houses with about 9,000 chickens in each one.  They are normally given the option to go outside on nice days to receive natural sunlight.  As I have heard with all the other farms record keeping is an important task, lots of clipboards and binders about EVERYTHING that happens on the farm.  Along with chickens the Vines have Purebred Angus cattle, this herd has been fully raised my Mr Vines himself.  He got into the purebred angus business when he stopped planting tobacco.  He started by buying some purebred cattle at shows, he said he got the 3 in 1 deal.  He first bought a 5 year old cow, with calf by her side and she was pregnant, Id say that would a good deal!  This beef operations also sells some beef to local people, sells the purebred cows, and continues raising more to restock the herd all using AI.  Since these are purebred cattle they will sell for higher prices.  The calves are started on feed as soon as they can eat to help them start growing, Vines motto was “feed now or feed me later”  so in order to get those calves up to desired weight you just as well start them early.  We meet his group of heifers that were about to calve in the next 2-3 months, he said its key not to over feed them because they dont need much feed, it will just feed the calf making in larger and causing a harder birth on the momma.

After all these farm visits and seeing lots of different ways to have beef cattle it sure does make me want some of my own and my husband would agree!

Or some people just call themselves crazy…..   Today I visited Randleman Farms they are know for their local grown beef and also pork.  They are also into growing tobacco, landscaping, and fence building but today I learned about their beef and pork operation.  Unlike what I am used to the normal grow your cattle and sell at the stock market operation was less complex then what Randlemen farm has undertaken.  This farmer decided they wanted to sell their beef (and later pork) locally.  This method takes more planning, more work, more time, but maybe a little more profitable??  At this farm they have a herd of cattle mostly an Angus/Simmental mix and strive to produce good quality meat.  Did you  know if takes about 2 years to produce a high quality steak?  Well thats right from the time the calf is born until its about 1200-1400 pounds thats the average life span of beef cattle, unless she is being kept in the herd as a replacement heifer.  On average you get about 24 steaks and 24 new york strips from a cow the rest are other cuts of beef.

The newest thing that this farm is involved in is First Hand Foods which is a Co-op basically that works with local farmers to buy their cows based on hanging weights and then they process, package and sell locally.  This is an easier way with less work on the farmer.  The deal with First Hand Foods is they must know in advance what you are going to have for the year and approximately when.

Describe the highlight of your week at the KFP Summer Institute.

• How do you plan to implement something you learned at the institute in your classroom?
• How has the week compared with other PD opportunities you have attended?

This week was packed with meeting new people, learning new ideas and having fun.  My favorite part of the week was rafting down the river on Wednesday with the group.  I also was glad to have time to work with and get to know my team members and talk about our Ag night plans and ideas.  I will definitely be using some of the team building activities like the marble run, magic carpet and pvc pipe activities in my class and possibility at my church’s bible school next week!

The PD during this whole was was very different from most.  We had some great speakers with hands on activities to keep us engaged.  I really liked the fun activities tied into each day and the “day off” .  The food here was amazing also with friendly staff to make sure we always had what we needed.

Last Thursday was day 2 of my experience in Alamance County.  I travels to McPherson Farms in Mebane.   It was a beautiful sunny hot day in the middle of a wheat field about 2 miles south of the Tanfer outlets were the city and country begin to meet.  Micheal McPhearson was cutting his last field of wheat for the season and I became his ride along.  After several laps around the field he said “you want to drive?”  So I did! I got to drive the biggest machine I’ve ever driven a John Deer Combine going a whopping 4 mph!  We were there about 3 hours and the majority of the time was spent in the tractor,  I got to hear lots of stories and background about McPherson farm as well.  Luckily the combine had ac!   
Later that afternoon the IFAL tour group stopped by for a quick visit on their way back to A&T to see the remaining of the wheat field being cut and also learn about soil samples and GPS tools used in agriculture.  This wheat field we had just cut has been mapped out into a grid and soil sampling had already been done.  These samples are then sent off the a lab to get analyzed, a report is then sent back to the farmer with a recommendation of what to apply to the field for the next crop, which was going to be soybeans.  The fertilizer truck from southern states was also at the field for us to see it and the GPS equipment inside.  The map and coding for this field could be input into the trucks computer and then the truck can spread the recommended rate of fertilizer / lime onto the field.  The cool thing about this new technology is that it can spread differ amounts in different areas automatically as the driver is going around the field!  Why would you spend money for this ?  This technology helps save money by not wasting extra fertilizer that may not be needed in all areas and also will increase yields.  Overall agriculture is really big in lots of technology currrently and it going to continue to grow!  What do you think will be next ?