Cody Miller

Recently in Ag Projects class, Cody Miller completed his restoration of a 1983 John Deere 318 garden tractor. When the tractor was first brought in it had rust spots and the hood needed some fabrication work. With lots of sanding, sand blasting, welding, priming, more sanding, painting, and a considerable amount of time and effort this old beat up tractor was transformed into a “like new” work of art. Cody is now working on the mower deck and the blade to complete his restoration project.

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The first job fair was held last Thursday, March 15th thanks to a grant awarded from the Iowa Food and Family Project (Iowa FFP). The job fair showcased local businesses in various sectors of agri-business.

Students had the opportunity to meet local business representatives in the morning to learn about all aspects of the business. Following lunch, students practiced their interviewing skills by being interviewed by the job fair participants.

Thanks to the following businesses for participating:  BT Farms, Federation Bank, Gingerich Well & Pump Service, Hills Bank & Trust, Kalona Auto, Progressive Grower Solutions, Schnoebelen, Inc., Syngenta Seeds, and Wellman Farm Center.  Their willingness to give students an opportunity to learn about the diversity of job opportunities in the local agricultural economy.

BT Farms: Brent & Tara Yoder

Federation Bank: Jenelle Escher & Sherry Crow

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Gingerich Well & Pump: Mark DeWolf & Joe Allen

 

Hills Bank & Trust: Jace Bailey & Emily Miller

Kalona Auto: Lynn Helmuth

 

Progressive Grower Solutions: Terry Erb

Schnoebelen, Inc: Mike Eden & Ralph Schnoebelen

 

Syngenta Seeds: Jim Chenhall & Abe Ales

Wellman Farm Center: Chase Gingerich

 

Enjoying a lunch break!

Michael Hershberger

Rex Yoder and Artemiy Sayfutdinov

McKayla Brush

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Students who are enrolled in the Agriculture Science and Leadership class were involved in a round robin type of contest Wednesday during block class. The activity was one that involved nine areas of different career development events that FFA has to offer. Students had the opportunity to try food science, dairy foods, landscaping, and poultry evaluation among others. Instructor Karen Van de Walle comments, “I appreciate the diversity offered in career development events (CDE) and as both the FFA Advisor and the agriculture instructor this gives a comfortable setting to see how diversified the field of agriculture is and how many different career opportunities they can have within the field. At first they are a little upset that I won’t tell them the ‘right’ answer, but that is just it, they need to focus on the process not the outcome.”

The students had fun sampling cheese, judging a horse class and identifying a cut of meat. They only had a couple of minutes to complete the task at hand so they had to think on their feet and quickly make decisions. FFA is a lot more than the work in the field. You learn that there are several other people who assist in getting that final product to the consumer.  Karen goes on to say, “My hope is that these students will see the value of trying something new and that it doesn’t matter how you do - just that you tried! I am less worried that they didn’t know a t-bone from a ribeye but I want them to know that someone involved in agriculture does and we should be thankful for that and if we are interested we can do it too.” 

The curriculum being used is from CASE (Curriculum for Agriculture Science Education) which is a course that Karen took for two weeks during the summer. It allowed the teacher to be the student and complete every assignment that is assigned as part of the class. The curriculum is for a year-long freshman course which IMS does not offer but in the future Karen hopes to transition to extend the full year. The class takes significant financial contribution from the school and teacher but with the help of Cargill Animal Nutrition this can be made available for our students.

Mark Miller explains to the class the egg grading process.

Students in the Animal Science class took at field trip to Farmer’s Hen House on Thursday, May 6 to understand the path eggs takes from farmer to consumer. Iowa is first in egg production in the United States. This industry contributes more than one billon dollars annually to the state’s economy. Students observed how the eggs are cleaned, sized, inspected using a candler, and packaged for distribution to area and national grocery stores. For example, Farmers Hen House provides eggs to all the national Target Super Stores and Hy-Vee. Mark Miller, owner of Farmer’s Hen House, discussed with the students the market for speciality eggs like brown cage-free organics and grocery store whites.

The Animal Science class will be brooding Rhode Island Red chicks as part of their poultry unit. These day-old chicks arrived the week of April 26. They will be available for purchase the week of May 17. If you are interested in purchasing please contact Marcia Kilgard 319-656-2073. The Rhode Island Red breed is one of the most famous and all time popular breeds of American chickens and are outstanding for production qualities. These chicks will be sanctioned for showing at county fairs, are pure breed and will have papers. Baby chicks are a rusty red color and the mature birds are a variety of mahogany red.

Ag Instructor Marcia Kilgard showing the chicks to her daughters, Kathryn and Brooklyn.