This afternoon we visited "Living Ag Classroom" to learn about everything agriculture! See the photos below, and be sure to check the captions for our favorite facts!
5 major agriculture-related jobs in ND: farmer, veterinarian, agribusiness, food scientist, extension agent.
Worker bees live 45 days and make just 1/12 tsp honey during their lifetime.
North Dakota produces half of our nation's pinto beans. North Dakota and Minnesota together produce 40% of our nation's navy beans.
90% of national newspapers used soy-based ink.
Drivers of vehicles who use soy bio diesel say the exhaust smells like French fries.
It takes 1,000 years to grow an inch of topsoil. Wow! That's a long time!!! It might be just a little important to protect our soil...
3 types of corn: popcorn, sweet corn, field corn
4 uses for corn: food, feed, fuel (ethanol), fiber
Cows eat 90 lbs of feed and drink 25-50 gallons of water per day. That's equivalent to us eating 500 hamburgers!
Takes 15 minutes to milk a cow by hand or 5 by machine. Each cow produces 6 gallons of milk per day, which is 90 cups, and produces 200,000 cups in her lifetime!
The 2 ingredients in compost are straw and manure (carbon and nitrogen). Compost can be used for crops, pots, gardens, etc. During this station we took turns acting as the "tractor" to shake the bucket of manure and straw to make compost!
Wheat is the #1 crop in ND.
1 bushel of durum wheat makes 42 pounds of pasta, and 1 bushel of hard red spring wheat makes 64 loaves of bread.
If a loaf of bread costs $4, the farmer only gets $0.10!
Japan buys the most spring wheat from us, and Italy buys the most durum wheat (pasta).
A serving size of meat is 3 oz (and is roughly the size of your palm), and we need 2-3 servings of meat each day to get our necessary nutrients.
One cow produces enough meat for 1800 quarter pounders. If we ate one quarter pounder a day it would take us until we are in 9th grade to eat them all!!!
One cow produces enough meat for 1800 quarter pounders. If we ate one quarter pounder a day it would take us until we are in 9th grade to eat them all!!!
Types of meat that come from pigs: ham, bacon, canadian bacon, ribs, roasts, pork chop, etc.
Many byproducts are made from other parts of the pigs, including gum...which is made from the stomach lining! Eewwwwwww!!!!! Other byproducts: Glue is made from hooves. Chalk, bar soap, and crayons are made from a pig's fatty acids.
Sheep can live 8-12 years and have between 1-3 lambs at a time.
Pigs can have 8-12 piglets at a time. These pigs are 6 months old and 250 pounds each.
Cows live 10-15 years. Heifers weigh on average 900-1200 pounds, and a bull can get up to 2,000 pounds. Cows don't have feeling in their ears.
We learned a TON, and the class was SO attentive and well-mannered! Great field trip!!!!!
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