Last week I hosted a group of students from Boys & Girls Clubs of the Mississippi Valley.
We visited the hogs and talked about the corn and soybeans that go into making the feed. I had a sample of feed, corn and soybeans for them to see the mixture. After that we happened to have a turbine repairman repairing a lightning strike on the turbine blade on our farm. We went out to watch him work and from high up on the blade, he told the boys and girls what he was doing. He took an aerial photo of us from his perch.
Since we were standing near the bean field we talked about soybeans and what they are used for. We then drove to the farm to throw apples to the cows, see the new calves and the fat cattle. We crossed the township road and talked about corn and what it is used for. We went to my office, where Henry County and Rock Island Farm Bureau “Ag in The Classroom” coordinators talked with the boys and girls providing information on the products developed from corn and soybeans with the boys and girls putting Cheerios, corn puffs, and other food products in a bag as a munchie.
I then opened up the ice cream shop and they had many variations of floats (root beer or orange pop), ice cream with caramel, chocolate, marshmallow toppings or any combinations of all, and brownies or chocolate chip cookies mom made this morning. A fun time was had by all. A great experience for some young boys and girls who had not been on a farm.
