A is for Agriculture

by Michele Boy | November 21, 2023

Hamilton County is known for its agriculture. Farmers, ranchers, dairies, feedyards. We raise animals; 4-H and FFA programs help give youth a better understanding, but not all students have access to these rural resources. 
The Kindergarten classes from Syracuse Elementary School had the opportunity to bridge that gap when they loaded a bus up on Thursday afternoon and traveled to Timeline Dairy.
Kindergarten teacher Mecia Luebbers explained -Last week, Kindergarten learned the letters “f” and “v” and had fun during play-based learning painting fall pictures, playing letter games, making leaf rubbings, and pretending to be veterinarians in the classroom vet clinic. Students role played being the vet, pet owners, and the assistant. Kindergarten teachers; Barb Summers and Mecia Luebbers planned a field trip to Syracuse Dairy at the Timeline location where Dr. Tera Barnhardt talked to the students and teachers about her job as a veterinarian.
 Adrian Ramirez was excited to share that his dad worked at a dairy and other students said their family members worked at dairies too! We learned that the cows get milked twice a day for 10 minutes at a time. The rest of the time they get to sleep and eat and do whatever they want, which the kids thought sounded pretty fun--they said it would be like recess all day! Kevin Palma said, “I wanna work here!” Then at least 20 kids raised their hands.
Dr. Barnhardt showed us a cow’s femur bone and some of their feed. We saw a lot of busy workers and asked great questions. One of the students wanted to know what was in the cow’s ears and Dr Barnhardt explained that their ear tags give her a lot of information about the cow so that she can do her job more efficiently. She also told us that she has some assistance to help her take care of all of the cows.
Teagan Valentine’s favorite part was singing happy birthday to a new calf. Many students said their favorite part was getting to pet the baby calf. And one kid said he didn’t realize how many different foods come from cows.
Some things we learned were that about 40 babies are born in a day at Syracuse Dairy at the Timeline location. We learned it takes two cows to supply our school with milk for a day. One cow produces 9.6 gallons a day which is equivalent to 150 cartons. Dr. Barnhardt has 5,000 cows to take care of there. We got to see two babies that were just born and loved learning more about being a veterinarian. 
Dr. Barnhardt shared that she went to school for a number of years and has cared for many animals, but that cows are her favorite. We would like to thank Syracuse Dairy for allowing us to come out and learn more about being a vet.
Dr. Barnhardt said, “It’s wonderful to partner with our educators to make sure we can connect with children so they may know more about where their meat and milk comes from. 
We’re careful to produce nutritious and safe food on these farms, because it is food for our communities too. It’s fun to share about how we do that with young kids from Syracuse!”