Coffee cows popular at Ag Days
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Ms. Gallatin’s fourth-grade class rushed towards Espresso and Mocha.
What — fourth-graders drinking espresso and mocha?
No, this Espresso and Mocha are not coffee drinks; they’re two coffee cows, 4-H heifer projects of Shelby Snyder and Bradley Findley.
The heifers are on display as part of Ag Days, an annual event put on by the Lake County Conservation District. Ag Days educates fourth-graders from around the valley about agriculture, and May 3 was Polson’s turn.
One given problem on any ranch, farm or house in town is weeds, and kids know about weeds. To eradicate weeds on his place and on his neighbors’, Mac Binger, ranch owner, sprays them with his helicopter.
“You have to take care of the weeds,” Binger said, since the ranch raises grass for not only cows but all sorts of wildlife, such as elk, coyote, pheasants, fox, meadowlarks, bear, the occasional moose, and maybe a wolf or two.
He parked his whirly-bird by the indoor arena and talked to students about it. Gesturing to the hills and flat land around the ranch, Binger told the kids a helicopter is necessary to navigate the hills when he’s flying 10 feet off the ground spraying. Also a helicopter can land on the ranch, so he doesn’t have to run back and forth to the airport in Polson. He sprays weeds in May and has found the most efficient combination of chemicals is Tordon and 2,4-D mixed with water. With 80 gallons of the chemical brew, he can spray 40 acres in 20 minutes. Then he lands, refills and repeats, covering 600 acres on a typical day.
Flying 10 feet above the ground, Binger’s helicopter covers a 50-foot swath at 50 miles per hour.
The temperature needs to be below 60 degrees, Binger said, or the spray doesn’t go on right. And any wind over 5 miles per hour will shut down the spraying operation, since it scatters spray where it shouldn’t go.
Students questioned Binger, asking him if the weed spray hurts cows or other animals, about the residual effects of weed spray, whether he ever sprays for bugs and about being a pilot.
Inside the arena, Rene Kittle from the Montana State University Reservation Extension Office gave students a close-up look at some of the weeds Binger sprays. Potted and plastic weeds all showed kids what noxious weeds look like and why it’s important to control the pests.
A 3-week-old Corriedale lamb, fuzzy and cute, was certainly not a pest. Susan Gardener brought a young ewe and her lamb, which students loved. Gardner showed kids how a fleece sheared from a sheep is cleaned and twisted into yarn turns for a sweater.
The kids visited Mark Vrooman and his paint horse, Brother, for the scoop on horses: how to treat them, what they eat, how they see, even the fact that horses were originally prey animals, although they aren’t prey for much of anything but mountain lions or grizzly bears in modern times.
Another display showed kids how to interpret silent signals from a horse, such as laying back its ears, baring its teeth, switching its tail, turning its back on a person or rolling its eyes.
Other 4-H members explained 4-H clubs to the kids, talking about their own experiences in 4-H and the myriad of projects available for kids.
Booths included dairy farmers, who brought a milking machine. A perennial favorite, the machine was hooked onto kids’ fingers so they could experience how milking felt for a dairy cow.
The water table, co-owned by the Lake County Conservation District, had some dairy cows — tiny plastic ones. It used sand, water and toy houses, animals, machinery and vehicles to demonstrate erosion and pollution in a ranch-like setting.
Real life situations, like a dead animal in the creek or riding dirt bikes and causing erosion, made the kids think.
A hayride on a hay wagon pulled by a vintage Allis Chalmers tractor was a favorite of many kids.
Gabe Mergenthaler liked showed kids what noxious weeds look like and why it’s important to control the pests.
A 3-week-old Corriedale lamb, fuzzy and cute, was certainly not a pest. Susan Gardener brought a young ewe and her lamb, which students loved. Gardner showed kids how a fleece sheared from a sheep is cleaned and twisted into yarn turns for a sweater.
The kids visited Mark Vrooman and his paint horse, Brother, for the scoop on horses: how to treat them, what they eat, how they see, even the fact that horses were originally prey animals, although they aren’t prey for much of anything but mountain lions or grizzly bears in modern times.
Another display showed kids how to interpret silent signals from a horse, such as laying back its ears, baring its teeth, switching its tail, turning its back on a person or rolling its eyes.
Other 4-H members explained 4-H clubs to the kids, talking about their own experiences in 4-H and the myriad of projects available for kids.
Booths included dairy farmers, who brought a milking machine. A perennial favorite, the machine was hooked onto kids’ fingers so they could experience how milking felt for a dairy cow.
The water table, co-owned by the Lake County Conservation District, had some dairy cows — tiny plastic ones. It used sand, water and toy houses, animals, machinery and vehicles to demonstrate erosion and pollution in a ranch-like setting.
Real life situations, like a dead animal in the creek or riding dirt bikes and causing erosion, made the kids think.
A hayride on a hay wagon pulled by a vintage Allis Chalmers tractor was a favorite of many kids.
Gabe Mergenthaler the hayride because rancher Sigurd Jensen told passengers about the different types of grass, while Mesa McKee liked the 4-H booth because of the ninja game kids played.
While the kids toured the exhibits, Dennis DeVries and Chuck Lewis grilled hamburgers, donated by the Montana Beef Council, for lunch. Chris Malgren and her crew loaded plates with a hamburger, an apple and chips donated by the Polson Chamber of Commerce, milk and an ice cream bar for dessert; and kids sat on the grass outside and enjoyed the sunshine.
After a rousing hand for the Bingers for hosting, the students trooped back on the buses and headed back to school with a new appreciation of ranchers and farmers and maybe a desire to raise cattle, hay or fruit when they grow up.
