Fourth graders learn about agriculture during annual ‘Ag Days’ event
Summer Goddard
Local beekeeper Carey Swanberg shows students bees from her hives and let them sample some honey they made.
Summer Goddard
Fourth graders file through the April 30 Ag Days lunch line.
Summer Goddard
Students answer the 4-H trivia question, “How many inches are in a horse hand (hands being how horses are measured in height)?” The correct answer was four inches.
Summer Goddard
Susan Lake explains to fourth graders how potatoes grow – with flowers above ground and tubers below.
Summer Goddard
Fourth graders got to see this 19-year-old horse and her foal up close during the ag days event.
Summer Goddard
Summer Goddard
Summer Goddard
Summer Goddard
Summer Goddard
Summer Goddard
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RONAN — Mission Valley fourth graders learned about all things ag last week during the annual Ag Days event held at Mountain Shadow Cattle Ranch April 30 and May 1.
Spread over two days to accommodate the number of participating schools, fourth grade students from Polson Ronan, St. Ignatius, Mission Valley Christian Academy, Dayton, and Valley View schools as well as some homeschool students attended to learn more about where their food comes from.
Ranch owner Buddy Cheff is a fifth-generation rancher on land that’s been in his family for more than 100 years. He took groups on tractor drawn hayrides and shared his family’s ranching history. “My great grandpa was born across the road and my grandpa was born above the canal,” he said. As a young man, Cheff left home to study to be a chiropractor. But he missed the ranch, so he came back to carry on in his family’s legacy. “I bought dad and grandpa out about 10 years ago,” he said.
Cheff, who also serves as regional president of the Montana Farm Bureau Federation, agreed to host this year’s ag days event to help area youth learn where their food comes from. “I don’t think enough people understand agriculture,” he said. An annual event since 1993, Cheff himself recalled attending as a fourth grader at Greg Gardner’s ranch.
The sun peaked out from the clouds throughout the day on April 30 as students cycled through educational stations that included tribal wildlife, Lake County conservation district (pollinators), 4H, potatoes, soils, FFA, Western, Montana, Stockman, a hayride, sheep, dairy, Mission Valley crops and horses.
After listening to a presentation about the 4-H (Head, Heart, Hands and Health) organization, students played a Jeopardy-style trivia game in which they answered questions about what they’d learned. One of the questions was, “How many eyelids does a chicken have?” The correct answer is three. One that closes top to bottom, one that closes bottom to top and another that closes side to side.
Sharon Guenzler, who raises cattle and quarter horses at her ranch west of Ronan, spoke to students about horses. She brought a mare with her 35-day old filly for students to see. A baby horse in general is called a foal, she explained. A baby boy is called colt and a baby girl is called a filly, she added. Foals weigh on average between 80-120 pounds when they’re born. Horses, historically a necessity for farmers and ranchers, are now more often used for pleasure purposes like riding, she said. Among the many horse facts shared, students also learned the difference between a freeze brand (which changes the color of hair grown in the applied area) and a hot brand (which singes skin so that no hair grows in the area.)
Local farmer Susan Lake explained to students how her family’s seed potato operation works and how important it is for farmers to make efficient use of their land as only 1/32nd of the earth’s surface is suitable to grow crops. The Lakes grow four different kinds of potatoes as well as wheat and canola. They rotate crops to keep nutrients in the soil and insect populations down. The seed potatoes they grow are harvested in the fall and kept dormant in a cellar until they are shipped out to Idaho to be grown larger and ultimately sold.
“Potatoes are pretty amazing,” she said, adding that in addition to eating them, potatoes can also be used on a sunburn.
Greg and Paula Schock, now retired, ran Schock’s Mission View Dairy in St. Ignatius for 43 years. They spoke to students about dairy farming and how milk is processed, pasteurized, bottled and packaged at creameries to become ice cream, butter, yogurt, cheese and more. They let students practice the twice daily milking required at a dairy on buckets outfitted with makeshift udders. Paula shared that when the Schock’s started dairy farming in 1977 there were 45 dairies in Lake County. Now, there’s only one.
During the lunch break, Mark Lalum and the Schocks reflected on how knowledge of agriculture is becoming increasingly lost in today’s world where food is bought at stores and restaurants and not directly from those growing it. They agreed that speaking up for agriculture and teaching kids where food really comes from is important.
This year’s Ag Days event was a joint undertaking of the Montana Farm Bureau, Western Montana Stockgrowers Association, the DNRC and NRCS with lots of support from community members - including the Ronan area Chamber of Commerce, who came out to cook and serve lunch each day.
