Ag-STEM Gateway 4th graders visit their class farmers

Gateway North Elementary in St Johns is our Ag-STEM school (Agriculturally based in science, technology, engineering, and math.)  Kris and I are the fourth graders' farmers.  I've visited their class this year, and today it was their turn to visit us!

Jenn Parker and Natalie Berkhousen, fourth grade teachers (and my friends)!

They spent the morning learning at AgroLiquid, and then the 63 kids came to us for a tour.  (AgroLiquid also was kind enough to let us use their people movers.  It seemed much better than letting the kids walk, because ... well, it's a place where you might get shocked by a fence.)

The students loved the calves - including two that were born just this morning - and had lots of questions about them.

- Why don't you keep the boy calves and raise them to eat them?  (We don't have room or feed.)

- Why is the calf licking me?  (They're like babies with pacifiers, plus you taste salty.)

- Can we climb that hay? (No, it's straw, and we have to keep it nice to bed down the calves.)

On to the cow barn!  We all piled in the people movers and Mike, my dad Jack, and Kris drove.

Aren't they jolly?

We went in to see them, and the kids were delighted by cows' natural behaviors.  The cows were amazed at the sheer number of small people.  After we walked around and looked at them there, we reconvened for some more questions.

- Why does she have a ring in her nose?  (When she was young,  she tried to suckle other heifers' udders.  This ruins or infects the udders, and then they can't give milk.  If you put a light, hollow ring in her nose, it prods the heifers, and they won't let her do it.  It saves their udders and breaks her of the habit.)

- Do they go to the bathroom out of their udders? (No.  An udder is for milk, not for waste.)

- How many bulls per cow?  (25 cows to 1 bull - JUST like The Bachelor!  There must be something about that number.)

Then off to the milk parlor.  Since the cows were actually being milked, we took small groups and showed them the parlor.  I haven't done this with a large group before, but it went well because everyone got to see an actual milking in progress.

We headed back to the calf barn and the kids saw the calves one more time before getting a GoGurt from me and leaving on the bus.

I thanked each of the kids for coming, and they asked their last questions -

- Why on earth would you want a giant lagoon of manure? (When you store it you can apply the fertilizer at the exact right times of the year.)

- Are we going to go into that pasture with those cows? (No, but you can look at them from here and not get shocked by that fence.)

- What is your address?  Because I want to come here every day after school with my mom.  (Just tell her to go on this road and look for cattle.)

When I was in kindergarten my class took a field trip to my farm.  I remember how much I liked showing my farm to everyone ... that feeling hasn't faded at all.

Thanks to Gateway, Mrs. Parker, Mrs. Berkhousen, and the fourth grades!

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Gateway Elementary, Ag-STEM school

In 2015, Gateway Elementary in St Johns was designated as an Ag-STEM (agriculture, science, technology, math) school.

This school year, each class was given a farmer, and Kris and I are the fourth graders' farmers.  It's been fun going in to see them this year, and they're going to tour our place, too.

Recently, they had a kindergarten music program put on by Mrs. Shirley Ries.  It was all farmer-focused! They asked me to come to the concert so they could recognize a class farmer and gave me nice fruit and animal-shaped cookies.

I didn't realize how farmy it would be - they sang things like 'The Milk Bucket Boogie', complete with milking motions.  It was very dairy and farming-positive!  And of course, when aren't kindergartners cute?!

Yesterday the fourth grade teachers Mrs. Jennifer Parker and Mrs. Natalie Berkhousen asked me to come in and read to their classes for March is Reading Month.  But they didn't want me to read farming books like I'd done before - they asked me to read the children's book I wrote, Sawyer in the Woods.  It was so fun! The kids were so attentive and had a million questions and comments afterward.  Thank you Gateway teachers for fostering the farm-school relationship!

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Meanwhile on the farm, we started drying up cows today.  That means we quit milking them so they can get ready to have their calves.

We have a list of cows that need to be dried up based on their due dates.  So we give them about two months before their calves are going to be born.  We sort them out of the regular milking group, milk them one last time, then use antibiotic on each teat to keep their udders healthy.  Since we stop milking them, we don't want them to get mastitis.  (And we will not be milking them again until they give birth, so there is no chance the antibiotic will still be in their systems when we milk them again.)

We then we put them in their own separate group and give them their own special feed.  We spray paint a leg so that we can easily see who is supposed to be in which group.

Again, it's based on due dates, so today we did 14.  We'll dry up more groups once a week until they've all ready to go!

It was really nice seeing Kris this winter ... and for the first time this summer, our oldest boys are going to be old enough to do calf chores.  Evergreen Dairy and Brothers, coming up.


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Agriculturally-based STEM school starting in St Johns

Exciting news in St Johns ... an Agricultural Science Technology Education Math elementary school! They call it Ag-STEM, because obviously it needs to be less of a mouthful.

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ST. JOHNS – St. Johns Public Schools and Central Michigan University have signed an agreement to create a university lab school with an agricultural focus.

Known as an Ag-STEM school, it will be the first of its kind in Michigan, and possibly in the United States, St. Johns Superintendent Dedrick Martin said.

Gateway Elementary School will be the Ag-STEM school in St. Johns – a school where science, technology, engineering and math concepts will be introduced with a decidedly agricultural focus.

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I really love this project, because Clinton County is such an agriculturally-focused region.  The school board in St Johns is working hard to come up with new curriculum ideas, and I think this one will resonate with the community.    

The rest of the article is here:

Lab school with agricultural focus to be launched


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In farm news, the guys were able to fix the wheel loader this afternoon!  Kris said it wasn't that bad this morning, despite the cold, but everyone was happy that they had a closed cab for tonight and for the rest of the upcoming cold, cold week.

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