We hosted a farm tour for a group of 3rd graders on Friday.
What a fun time!
It was a beautiful day and the children were excellent.
We divided the kids into four groups and showed them various aspects of our operation.
Joe gave a presentation on the feeding of the animals. He showed them the feed wagon and the different feed ingredients.
Then he sent kids to each feed ingredient and had them weigh a specific amount of feed to make their ration.
After they mixed the ration, they fed it to a pen of bulls.
Joe was pretty sure the kids enjoyed his presentation the most.
Then Clint and Marci showed the kids how we process our baby calves. The little bottle calf didn’t know what to think about the whole situation, but after a while I think he really enjoyed it.
They showed the kids how to saddle a horse and explained all the things we use a horse for on our ranch. They even got Mrs. Sobotka up on Barltes!
Then they lined the kids out and let them each have a crack at roping. That was pretty comical. And, sorry Joe, but I think this might have been the favorite part of the kids’ day.
After Clint and Marci, the kids came over to the chute area and I gave a demonstration of the various things we do to keep the cattle healthy and cared for.
I let one volunteer run the chute and I’ll be darned if she didn’t pull the lever the wrong way and let the calf out. Shoot! Good thing it was an imaginary calf or we would have flattened some kiddos. Lol.
After I showed them how we tag, brand, tattoo, vaccinate, hip height and weigh the calves, I let the kids pretend they were cattle. We had some fun with that. And we weighed each group to see if all of them combined would weigh as much as one yearling bull…only one group did and that was with the help of a dad who was along as a chaperone.
Our last section for the day was a pasture tour. Grampy drove the truck while Lindsay was the tour guide.
The kids got to see our hay and silage area and then went through some cows and calves before ending with a trip through the herd bulls.
Now we got several funny comments throughout the day such as only bulls have horns, and how do you get the babies “in” the mama’s belly, but I think Lindsay might have gotten the best comment when one of the kids exclaimed as they were driving through the bulls, “Wow! Look at the udder on that one!”
Cracked me up.
After the presentations, the kids got a twenty-minute recess where they entertained themselves with everything imaginable. They were just awesome kids. Ty and Jake graciously shared their toys and the kids had a blast.
While the kids were playing, Heather and Jennifer were busy getting lunch ready. Heather had everything prepared and it was delicious.
Dad, Clint, and Cody manned the grill.
And the kids enjoyed their lunch.
If these guys had half as much fun as we did, it was a successful day.
And hopefully they learned a little about farm life along the way!
Hope you enjoy the beautiful day!