FFA--FARM ADVENTURES

 FARM ADVENTURES
Tours Provide on-the-Road Learning Experiences
Today was labeled as a driving day, since we covered the whole state of Indiana from north to south, and Rick even agreed to a 7:45 a.m. start which allowed us an extra 15 minutes this morning.

Testing our balance and physical strength,
Andy and Sue join the teens on the Jumping Bean.

 But Fair Oaks Farms, in Fair Oaks, Indiana, provided four hours of entertainment and adventure.  The 19,000 acres of farmland are surrounded by woods and streams that act as vegetative filter strips to protect the farmland and the animals.

After hours on the bus, kids find a
way to expend that pent-up energy.

The Dairy Adventure started with activities for young children in the Welcome Center. Our teenagers loved the cow carousel ride, the bucket slide and the coloring stations that encouraged visitors to do rubbings of farm scenes.  I did the tractor scene and the barn scene.  Andy and Tara tried the ball maze.At the Birthing Barn, two cows gave birth behind glass panels in a theater-type auditorium.  One labored; the other gently washed her new baby bull calf, nudging him with her nose to stand up.  He almost made it up on wobbly legs when we left on the Moo Bus.
The behind-the-scenes bus ride took us past barns with 36,500 cows, almost all Holsteins, and through the center of South Farm, a free-stall dairy cow barn that was completed in February of 2000.  We learned that an average dairy cow consumes 17 tons of feed a year.  That's about 100 pounds of feed per day, along with 30 gallons of water."You can tell if a cow is comfortable if it chews its cud.  That's the food that is regurgitated after chewing and swallowing it the first time," explained the tour guide.

At the Dairy Adventure, Tri-Valley FFA members ride a cow.

The cows, most of them lying in stalls, looked relaxed and comfortable on their beds of sand.  "Sand is inorganic and it molds to the body shape," said the bus guide. "That means it does not encourage the growth of bacteria, and it makes a comfortable bed fort the cow," he explained. The sand beds are cleaned three times a day.  Inside the milking carousel, we watched the cows file in for the eight-minute ritual.  They are milked three times a day, 72 animals at each milking, and produce 250,000 gallons of milk a day from Fair Oaks Dairy.

Older piglets roam around the feed barn.

A Dairy Jumping Pillow gave the teenagers some outdoor energy-burn.  Shoes off, Andy and I joined the whole Tri Valley crew of pillow jumpers.
"It's harder than it looks," said Andy.
"It's a real workout," said Tara.
I just laughed, as kids around me knocked me off my feet by jumping.

A sow contentedly nurses her piglets

By 10:55 a.m. we boarded a bus for the Pig Adventure, a co-op of farms that produce 80,000 pigs a year.  By educating the public and maintaining a commitment to protect the environment, Fair Oaks exemplifies modern farming.  After our initial pretend shower in front of screens of bubbles, we took the self-guided tour.  At the Growing Barn we saw hundreds of pigs in their first six months of life.  This barn features the carefully cared for pigs growing from four week-old piglets to more than 600-pound ladies who will soon become mothers themselves.
In the Farrowing Barn we watched sows give birth to litters of piglets right before our eyes.  "They give the sows aspirin to relieve some of the pain," said Andy, when we caught up to him.
In the Gestation Barn, exhibits explained about modern day pregnancy practices like ultra sound  I became the proud farmer of four piglets. Animals of all sizes ate, played and slept in the pens below us.  An Electronic Sow Feeder (ESF) allows all animals to get an equal share of food.
The adventure ended at the café and gift shop, where most of the teenagers succumbed to the temptations of ice cream advertising.  What better way to end an adventure at a dairy!  To thank our sponsors, we gathered at the Fair Oaks Farms entry sign for a group photo.  Then it was on to Louisville.

FFA Competition Challenges Teens
Staying outside of Louisville, about 10 miles from the Convention Center with six groups of kids competing and presenting at different times creates logistical problems. Add in two bus drivers on computer-controlled time limitations, who both need to take groups on outside excursions, and you have a nightmare of timing.  As a consequence, we departed the motel at 6:30 a.m. to be dropped at the Kentucky Exhibition Center (KEC) so the bus drivers could return to the motel for the group tour. 
Andy immediately headed to the shuttle for downtown Louisville with the New York State winner of the Job Interview competition.  Her national competition started at 8:00 a.m.

As the first place New York team,
Maura, Grace and Dorothy practice
their marketing presentation in the
Galt House Hotel lobby
before national competition.

I hung out with groups until 11:00 a.m. and then headed downtown to the Galt House Hotel and Suites with the three girls on the New York State winning Marketing Team.
Our photograph at 4:00 p.m. and Orientation Session at 5:00 p.m. gave us lots of time to relax in comfort and practice the 15-minute presentation for tomorrow morning.  In addition, we talked about potential questions for the follow-up.

With horse blanket props
for the marketing pitch,
Dorothy, Grace and Maura
are ready to compete.

It was only the start of three days of non-stop action that included seven National FFA Sessions in the Convention Hall, lots of browsing around the hundreds of booths advertising products, services, agricultural opportunities and agricultural colleges.  Passion, Persistence and Pride. It was the opening day of the 87th National FFA Convention. Today was a day of Purpose.

FFA advisors Will from Delaware
and Tara from New York pause in the
midst of constant activity and action.

Tara, the National Teacher of the Year (2014) for Career and Technical Education, shuttled her kids back and forth to their competitions and cheered them on stage in front of the 63,000 people.As the largest student organization in the world, the Future Farmers of America, a sea of blue jackets in the darkened convention hall, inspires kids to achieve, grow educationally and care about others. Andy and I were inspired, as well.  It was absolutely AWE-some.