DeKalb County Ag Magazine_FALL 2020

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DeKalb County

FALL 2020

A Publication of

RYE NOT:

Farmer promotes the message of cover crops

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DeKalb County

Table of Contents

4

6

SNOWFALL IMPORTANT

For replenishing dry soils

8

NEW AG BUILDING A COMMUNITY AFFAIR

FFA alumni raise funds, volunteer for Hinckley-Big Rock projectw

10

EARLVILLE FFA MEMBER ELECTED NATIONAL FFA OFFICER

Hoffman focuses on embracing complexity of members across the country

12

COVID AND THE CLASSROOM

Getting the ag literacy message to students and teachers

14

BQA TRAINING HIGHLIGHTS CATTLE HANDLING TECHNIQUES

Program certifies producers in best management practices

agmag

DeKalb County

RYE NOT

Farmer promotes the message of cover crops

Published by Shaw Media Project Manager: Lisa Angel Design & Layout: Megan Hampton

Articles and advertisements are property of Shaw Media. No portion of DeKalb County Ag Mag may be produced without written consent of the publisher.

Fall Fall2020 2020| | DeKalb DeKalbCounty CountyAG AGMAG MAG | | 33

RYE NOT Farmer promotes the message of cover crops

BY JEANNINE OTTO - AgriNews Publications ESMOND, Ill. — Paul Taylor has farmed for decades in the Esmond area and something he’s seen this fall concerns him.

“I have seen moldboard plows out this fall. My first thought was they were being used for primary tillage, but it appears they are being used to plow gullies closed from our heavy rain events this spring,” Taylor said.

Taylor understands the mindset behind it. He used to do the same thing.

“When I was young, we fall plowed our bean ground, that was just standard procedure. The road ditches would be full of dirt in February and March. It was terrible. We had to work the gullies shut. When you worked all your fields every year, you didn’t pay any attention to that, you just did it,” he said.

For Taylor, the alternative to gullies washed through fields and soil eroding into ditches is making sure that as much ground as possible is covered. It’s a lesson learned from his father.

“My dad’s theory was that you had to have something growing on the ground all the time,” Taylor said.

Taylor, like his dad, grew vegetable crops for local Del Monte and Green Giant processing plants. So, cover crops, usually bin-run soybeans because they were cheap and available, were planted on acres that had canner crops like

4 | DeKalb County AG MAG | FALL 2020 4 | DeKalb County AG MAG | Fall 2020

peas, sweet corn and lima beans. If the weather and rain was favorable, farmers could get a second crop out of the ground.

With the Del Monte plant in Mendota closed, this is the first year that Taylor hasn’t grown any vegetable crops. But the cover cropping on his farm keeps growing.

“This year, we are going to have probably 75% of our acres under cover crops. That’s probably as high as we’ve been. Most years, we might be 40% to 50%,” he said.

Taylor is one of a growing number of farmers across the United States utilizing cover crops on their farms.

The 2020 National Cover Crop Survey, supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program, along with the American Seed Trade Association, and presented by the Conservation Technology Information Center, surveyed 1,172 farmers across the United States. The online survey was done March 26 to April 12.

Ninety-three percent, a total of 1,090, of the farmers responding to the survey said they have used cover crops, while 7% said they had never used them — and 24.9% of the farmers responding have used cover crops for more than 10 years.

Taylor is among them. He has been using cover crops on some part of his acres for the past 15 years.

“I think the trick with cover crops is matching what you are seeding for when you are seeding and then matching

the mix or variety of cover crops to your skill level,” he said.

Taylor uses primarily cereal rye. One challenge that farmers have in northern Illinois is getting cover crops planted in enough time after corn or soybean harvest for the cover crops to germinate and produce a good stand. Taylor fertilizes with hog manure injected into the soil.

“You can plant it late, it stays vigorous late in the fall and you get some nice growth in the spring,” he said.

One struggle that some new to cover cropping have with cereal rye is terminating it in the spring.

“You have to work at getting it killed in the spring. You have to have your own sprayer and do it yourself or you have to have a really good relationship with your custom applicator,” Taylor said.

Taylor also has experimented with different ways of seeding and settled on an air seeder cart that is pulled behind a vertical tillage tool.

“Most of this ground we are fall tilling a little bit anyway, so we are just putting

the rye with it,” he said.

Taylor said he would like to see more farmers look at cover crops as an option to solving soil issues. He sees the difference in his own fields.

“Most people want to solve a problem with iron and big tractors. My opinion is that’s not the way we are going to fix this.

Some of this ground we haven’t chiseled in six or eight or nine years and it’s full of wormholes, it drains well, you get a big rain and the water leaves. Now, granted, some of the ground is tiled, but not all of it is,” he said.

He doesn’t regard cover crops as the single solution, but rather one of several tools that he uses to improve soil health and fertility.

“I think minimum tillage is a big help.

I think manure is a big help. I think drainage is a big help. I think cover crops are a big help. What I am trying to do is put that package together,” he said.

(Previous Page) Paul Taylor employs soil conservation practices to not only maintain his farmland, but restore it.

(Cover and Right) Planting cover crops keeps soil in place over the winter and also helps to reduce runoff.

- AGRINEWS PHOTOS/JEANNINE OTTO

Jeannine Otto can be reached at 815-223-2558, ext. 211, or jotto@agrinews-pubs.com. Follow her on Twitter at: @AgNews_Otto

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Fall 2020 | DeKalb County AG MAG | 5

Snowfall important

for replenishing dr y soils

BY JEANNINE OTTO AgriNews Publications DEKALB, Ill. — A local weather station shows that soils in the DeKalb County area are only slightly drier than normal, despite a prolonged drought in August. But snowfall in the winter months ahead will be an important indicator of whether dry conditions continue or abate.

“This part of the state has been trying to decide whether or not it’s going to go into drought pretty much since July,” said Illinois State Climatologist Trent Ford.

Ford gave some insight as to what farmers and weather watchers should be looking out for in northern Illinois into late fall and winter.

Northern Illinois has carried some dryness from August into the early fall, but not in extreme amounts. While central

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Illinois into southern Illinois continue to show areas that are abnormally dry to having moderate drought, according to the Oct. 27 U.S. Drought Monitor, northern Illinois has so far escaped that fate.

“It has been drier than average across that I-88 corridor and including Carroll, Lee, DeKalb, Kendall and southern Kane counties and then into DuPage and Cook. It’s been drier than average out to about four months now, but the actual anomalies are not that large,” Ford said.

He said that due to the pattern of rainfall, there may be isolated areas that are much wetter or much drier.

“It becomes so spotty that there are fields that missed out on some of the heavier rains that may be closer to 4- to 5-inch deficits of rainfall from the average and there are going to be fields that hit all of the big rains and are probably a 2- to 3-inch surplus of moisture,” Ford said.

Local sensors at the Illinois Climate Network’s DeKalb station show the area to be about average for moisture.

“Actual observations in the ground sensors for soil moisture at the DeKalb station, its soils are right at average, if not slightly wetter than average at 2 and 4 inches. It’s just slightly drier than average at 8 inches,” Ford said.

He noted that deeper, at around 20 inches, the soils are only a couple of inches less wet than they normally would be at this time of the year.

Going into the late fall and winter, Ford said it will be important to track snowfall and precipitation.

“We want to stay with precipitation. It will be important this winter to get a near normal or wetter than normal winter as far as total precipitation,” he said.

An ideal scenario will be one in which snowfall occurs, followed by a slightly warmer period that allows surface thawing.

“If we get significant snowfall and we can get those events where it snows and then over a period of days or weeks it melts, and then you get your next snow, that snowmelt does tend to infiltrate into the soil, especially if you can get a number of days above freezing, where the topsoil can thaw a little bit,” Ford said.

Right now and until early March, soils are at a recharge stage and drought isn’t likely to intensify in wintertime.

“We are pretty much at a net gain at this time. This is kind of the recharge stage that we need to make up water that we lost over the summer,” Ford said.

The time of concern will be going into the new year and the first part of 2021, especially if there hasn’t been significant snowfall in early winter.

“My key concern would be if we get deep into January, February and we are seeing the same deficits that we are seeing now or slightly worse deficits, so if we string together a very dry November, a very dry December and then we get halfway through January and we are still very dry, I would begin to get concerned that we may carry drought into the growing season,” Ford said.

After March, as plants come out of dormancy and temperatures rise, it can be difficult to make up for existing drought from the previous fall.

“If we don’t recharge, if we don’t make up for some of that moisture deficit in the winter, like we normally do, we could carry over the drought into the next growing season. Once crops start go to into the ground, once plants start to wake up and temperatures start to rise, that will inevitably result in an increase in drought severity,” Ford said.

Jeannine Otto can be reached at 815-223-2558, ext. 211, or jotto@ agrinews-pubs.com. Follow her on Twitter at: @AgNews_Otto

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Fall 2020 | DeKalb County AG MAG | 7

New ag building a community affair FFA alumni raise funds, volunteer for Hinckley-Big Rock project

BY MARTHA BLUM AgriNews Publications HINCKLEY, Ill. — Agricultural education opportunities will be expanding for Hinckley-Big Rock High School students with the addition of an Ag Education Building currently under construction near the school.

“This building has been in the works for five-plus years,” said Tracey Sanderson, Hinckley-Big Rock agricultural teacher and FFA adviser for the chapter that includes about 100 members.

“There was an old building here and the roof blew off, so we got a few initial donations and got the ball rolling for this new building,” said Eric Wackerlin, treasurer of the Hinckley-Big Rock FFA Alumni.

Construction of the education building started during the summer.

“The shell was built in four weeks with all volunteer labor and all community funded,” said Nan Long, president of the HBR FFA Alumni that includes about 25 members.

“Pioneer and Resource Bank were the first two substantial donors,” Wackerlin said. “Then we received donations from Compeer, CHS, DeKane Equipment, Bob Pritchard and a grant from the DeKalb County Community Foundation.”

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In addition to monetary donations, companies donated equipment and personnel to assist with the development of the 50-by-80-foot building.

“O’Donnell Excavating did all the site work, and they will do the final grading,” Wackerlin said. “And Condon Construction from Sandwich sent a crew of three guys to do the roof, which was huge.”

“Most Saturdays there were 15 to 20 volunteers working on the building, which was quite amazing,” Sanderson said. “To see them work was very humbling since some of them have kids in school, but most are involved in agriculture or they are tradesmen.”

“We had such a diverse group of people helping, and some of them had no ties to Hinckley,” said Bob Strand, vice president of the HBR FFA Alumni.

FFA students worked together with the adult volunteers.

“We helped as much as possible, and it definitely was a lot of learning,” said Maddie Noble, a senior at HBR and president of the FFA chapter. “We were doing stuff on the ground and going up on the lifts to help install the sheets of metal.”

“There were a lot of friendships made as the adults mentored to the kids and explained how to use blueprints or what they were doing during construction,” Sanderson said. “It was job shadowing for the students.”

“Guys were teaching the kids different skills,” Long said. “It was amazing to see the kids jumping in to help.”

“When kids learn as a student to serve that continues as an adult,” said Jenna Halverson, FFA Alumni second vice president, who also earned her American FFA Degree as a member of the HBR FFA chapter.

“This building is going to be an extension of our ag learning,” Noble said.

“Seeing this building being constructed makes me so happy that our future students are going to have a more interactive experience, and I think it is really going to help this school.”

Another group of volunteers provided breakfasts, lunches and snacks to the volunteers working at the construction site.

“We were very well fed,” said Sanderson, who has taught at HBR for seven years.

In September, the FFA Alumni held their second annual Progressive Golf fundraiser.

“We raised over $12,000 for the building in the middle of a pandemic,” Long said. “That finished paying for phase one of the project.”

The FFA Alumni plans to begin the second phase of the project during the winter.

“We will be doing the electrical work and the concrete work will be done in the spring,” Wackerlin said.

The interior of the building will feature a classroom, as well as a storage area for equipment.

“A lot of kids don’t get exposed to equipment or animals, so this will give us space where we can pen an animal, bring in a tradesman like an electrician with his service truck or bring in a piece of farm equipment since so many of the kids are not engaged in production ag,” Sanderson said. “This building gives us a place to provide these things to kids that we haven’t had before.”

The goal of the HBR FFA Alumni is to have the building completed by the start of the 2021-2022 school year.

“Working parallel with the alumni is nice, you don’t see that in all communities,” Sanderson said. “The mutual respect across the board is very unique. This building is for the kids and no one is here for their own interest and that’s why the community bought in on it so quickly.”

“Part of my attitude with what we do is Tracey, we are so blessed to have her as the ag teacher,” Strand said. “Her support and the support of the school board and our superintendent are really important.”

“HBR is lucky because Gary Blankenship left behind a legacy of people who now come back to volunteer,” Halverson said. “These two instructors have made an impact on generations in this community.”

The alumni group has started a new fundraiser for the building project.

Families and businesses have the opportunity to purchase an engraved brick that will be part of the walkway under the porch of the building. More information about purchasing a brick is available at: https://polarengraving. com/hbrffaalumni.

Donations for the Ag Education Building can be sent to the HBR FFA Alumni Association at P.O. Box 814, Hinckley, IL 60520.

(Previous Page) Hinckely-Big Rock FFA members are looking forward to the completion of the new Ag Education Building near their high school. Leaders of the chapter include Bryan Gorsky (from left), George Baumann, Ciera Woods, Bridget Wilkening, Maddie Noble, Ashleigh Wackerlin and Kendall Hawbaker.

- AGRINEWS PHOTO/MARTHA BLUM (Upper Left) Officers of the Hinckley-Big Rock FFA Alumni look over the blueprints of the Ag Education Building currently under construction. Leaders of the FFA Alumni include Bob Strand (from left) Nan Long, Donna Kimpan, Jenna Halverson and Eric Wackerlin.

- AGRINEWS PHOTO/MARTHA BLUM (Upper Right) After several years of planning by the Hinckley-Big Rock FFA Alumni, work to build the Ag Education Building has included both adult volunteers and FFA members. On Saturdays during the summer, from 15 to 20 workers spent time working on the building while teaching students construction techniques.

- PROVIDED PHOTO (Middle Right) FFA students work with adult volunteers during construction last summer of the Ag Education Building. The goal of the Hinckley-Big Rock FFA Alumni is to have the building completed by the start of the 2021-2022 school year.

- PROVIDED PHOTO

Fall 2020 | DeKalb County AG MAG | 9

Earlville FFA member elected National FFA officer: Hoffman focuses on embracing complexity of members across the country

Miriam Hoffman

BY MARTHA BLUM AgriNews Publications EARLVILLE, Ill. — Leadership does not always look the same for Miriam Hoffman who was elected as one of six National FFA officers during the 93rd National FFA Convention and Expo.

“Being a leader isn’t about being noticed, but it’s about noticing other people,” said Hoffman, who was elected the eastern region vice president for the National FFA Organization during the final session of the convention which was held virtually this year.

“This summer when I went through the Illinois selection process it was because I felt that I have a unique set of skills to bring to the FFA and it was my duty to offer up those talents I have to this organization,” the Earlville FFA member said.

Hoffman’s goal during her year as a national FFA officer is to embrace complexity.

“All my life I’ve felt like I have so many pieces to me and a lot of them don’t make sense,” she said.

Music, Hoffman said, is one way to illustrate it.

“I’m all across the board from classic rock, classic country, classical to current pop music,” she said. “I felt like I needed to simplify myself and fit myself into a box depending on what group of people I was with.”

However, a conversation with John Edgar, assistant director at the Illinois FFA Center, gave Hoffman a different perspective.

“I finally realized in my conversation with Mr. Edgar, the fact that I have such a diverse set of interests is how I connect with so many people,” she said. “I can find something in common with just about anybody.”

Embracing complexity, Hoffman said, is the realization that there is more to everyone than what people see on the surface.

“The quiet students in the workshop have ideas they want to share but no one has ever asked them,” she said.

“Or, the funny and loud students probably have deeper thoughts and ideas, but no one has ever asked them either.”

In addition to making individuals strong, Hoffman said, embracing complexity also strengthens organizations.

“When you bring together 760,000 unique individuals, it’s going to result in a set of complex issues that every year we’re working through in the FFA,” Hoffman said.

“We need to create an environment that is open to every

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student who wants to be part of what we’re doing and insure that every student feels like they belong and they have a place,” she said. “We’re not going to have all the answers all the time, but it’s about having the attitude to get to the answers.”

It was a much different experience running for a national officer this year with the virtual format, said Hoffman who also was a candidate at last year’s convention.

“It was pretty isolating, but what I did love about the process this year was being surrounded by my friends and family at home,” said the daughter of Winifred and the late Kenneth Hoffman.

“Something I learned in the process last year is the nominating committee truly just wants to see who you are as a candidate and they don’t want you to pretend you’re a perfect person,” she said. “They want to see who you are and how you are going to serve the FFA and that showed through even during the Zoom calls.”

It was difficult not to be with the other candidates, Hoffman admitted.

“Even though I didn’t build as many connections as I did last year, the connections I did have were deeper because it was a new process for all of us,” she said.

A member of the nominating committee traveled to each of the officers’ homes to deliver their FFA jackets just moments after the completion of the election, which was a surprise to the newly elected officers.

“I had no idea that person was there and that was an incredible way to end the process, so I could meet that nomination committee member in person that I’d been talking to on Zoom for the last week,” Hoffman said.

“It was crazy how National FFA pulled that off, but they did.”

Hoffman was surrounded by family and friends as she was named the eastern region vice president.

“I’m so grateful, that’s the overwhelming emotion I felt even before the elections because so many people have poured into me throughout the last six years in FFA,” Hoffman said. “I have a very tall, strong wall of people behind me.”

“It’s not Miriam Hoffman that got elected, it’s all the pieces of all these different people that helped Miriam Hoffman become who she is today,” she said. “This is not just my election. This is for all the people who have invested in me.”

For her FFA projects, Hoffman has focused on dairy production in the areas of both placement and

entrepreneurship.

“I worked with my family’s cattle and I also had my own Milking Shorthorn and Dutch Belted dairy cattle,” said the FFA member who is advised by Natalie Mahler.

“I’ve sold genetics across the country and spent my summers showing cattle at local county fairs.”

Currently, Hoffman is a junior at Southern Illinois University studying agribusiness economics.

“I’ve thought about my career a lot and I don’t have a definitive answer yet, but I did have an incredible experience this summer working for Continuum Ag,” she said. “That is a soil health, data, consulting and management company that focuses on regenerative agriculture.”

Hoffman is interested in this segment of agriculture.

“This is an area I’ve been passionate about growing up on my family’s operation where we’ve done things a little differently than many of the farmers around us by grazing our cattle and growing organic row crops,” Hoffman said.

“It was really cool for me to see this summer the cooperative spirit of the people I worked for and empowering farmers to make decisions that are both environmentally sustainable and economically resilient,” she said.

“I see so much innovation happening there and that excites me,” she said. “I love to work with creative people that are finding win-win solutions for farmers and consumers.”

Martha Blum can be reached at 815-223-2558, ext. 117, or marthablum@agrinews-pubs.com. Follow her on Twitter at: @AgNews_Blum.

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Fall 2020 | DeKalb County AG MAG | 11

COVID and the classroom:

Getting the ag literacy message to students and teachers

BY JEANNINE OTTO AgriNews Publications DANVILLE, Ill. — Hopefully, by the time the butterflies in the Pollinator Kits hatch, students will be back in their classrooms to see them up close.

For now, Thea Gernand is enjoying the response of Vermilion County teachers to the new kits.

“We just got the word out about them and we are fully booked for our spring sessions and we are very excited about that,” said Gernand, the coordinator for the Vermilion County Ag in the Classroom program.

The Illinois Ag in the Classroom program provides lessons on agriculture and farming to students in grades kindergarten through eighth grade. The program is administered at the county level, and county Farm Bureaus have an AITC coordinator, who is responsible for putting the program together and getting the information out to schools in their county.

County coordinators are adapting their programs this year to a variety of classroom and learning situations. AgriNews talked to the people who are keeping ag in the classroom — wherever that classroom happens to be.

A QUICK TURNAROUND

Kevin Daugherty isn’t just the education director at Illinois Farm Bureau. He is also the president of the Leroy CUSD #2 School Board. So, when the word went around that the governor was going to make an announcement on March 20 about COVID-19, Daugherty pretty much knew what was coming.

“Knowing the school board stuff, we were pretty sure the governor was going to make the announcement for the shutdown and that’s what he did,” Daugherty said.

Anticipating that some disruption to inperson classroom learning was coming, the Ag in the Classroom staff at Illinois Farm Bureau quickly pivoted.

“We made a video on Friday, and we said starting Tuesday, every day at noon until the end of the school year, we will provide a hands-on lesson and a STEM activity. We came up with new material that students and teachers could access with interest about what was going on in agriculture. We did something every day until June 12,” Daugherty said.

12 | DeKalb County AG MAG | Fall 2020

The goal was to provide content that was not just educational, but fun and stimulating, as well.

“We found some sort of fun video, whether it was the Peterson Brothers or something that went along with that topic or something goofy, just to try and have a little bit of fun, as well as learning about something,” Daugherty said.

The program’s Summer Ag Institutes, where teachers visit farms and agribusiness in their counties and learn about agriculture, went virtual by way of tours, conducted by the state’s grain and livestock commodity groups, along with one-hour training sessions for teachers.

All of the information was uploaded onto the program’s blog site, beyondthebarndoor. wordpress.com, and also at the agintheclassroom.org website.

Continuing forward, Daugherty and his team are putting together monthly themes and the materials and activities to go along with those themes. With field trips canceled, he and his team are posting virtual field trips that teachers and students can enjoy.

The September virtual field trip was to an apple orchard and October will be a tour of a pumpkin farm.

“We are getting ready to go to Heap’s Giant Pumpkin Patch in Minooka,” Daugherty said.

The program also promotes a book that goes along with each month’s theme. “Pick a Pumpkin” by Patricia Toht, an Illinois author, is the featured book for October.

The state program continues to provide material weekly for teachers, posting the new lesson on Thursday for the next week. In addition, the state program also is offering professional development credits through a program called “PD in your PJs,” that offers Saturday morning sessions to earn those credits.

‘A WEIRD YEAR’

Rhodora Collins is looking at school this year not just as the DeKalb County Ag in the Classroom coordinator, but as the mom of a student who is doing remote learning.

The DeKalb County program serves students and teachers in 42 schools throughout the county. While Collins focuses her outreach at the elementary and middle school levels, she also works with high school ag teachers to provide materials and

information.

Collins said the program is teacher focused, providing teachers with training and resources to incorporate agriculture into their classroom lessons.

“We do some classroom outreach, but we are not in classrooms every week as a lot of counties are,” Collins said.

When schools sent students home in March, Collins knew what other parents were going through, trying to keep kids occupied while also trying to adjust to the new normal of doing their own jobs from home.

“I’m at home as a parent, trying to keep my daughter occupied and seeing what her teacher is facing and what other parents are facing and thinking, ‘Is there anything I can do?’” she said.

So, she found activities that continue the ag learning and that families could do together.

“It wasn’t a lot, but I knew they were getting pummeled with stuff from all directions,” she said.

Moving into this school year, with field trips and in-person events canceled, she is working on finding ways to continue to get the ag message to the teachers and students in the county. She shares the lessons created by the state program and the national Ag in the Classroom program on the county’s AITC website.

“We had an ag literacy committee meeting recently. I have a wonderful blend of farmers and educators at different levels. I had questions for them, like what is the best way for me to assist teachers and promote ag literacy now? What is going to work and what is not going to work?” Collins said.

She was reminded of how much has changed when she glanced at a copy of the minutes of the March 10 ag literacy committee meeting. The committee discussed an awards night, the annual local history expo for DeKalb third-graders and an annual field trip for Sycamore eighth-grade students.

“I looked at those minutes and none of that happened. It’s just been a weird year,” she said.

FAMILIAR FACES

However she can do it, Jennifer Glover is determined to get her Ag in the Classroom volunteer presenters back in front of students.

“We are trying to get them back with the familiar face that they are used to, who comes

into their classroom. That was my goal, and they all jumped on board,” said Glover, coordinator for the Peoria County Ag in the Classroom program.

Recording lessons using Zoom instead of standing in front of students pushed Glover and her volunteers out of their comfort zone, but it was a move they made willingly.

“It’s pushed us all out of our comfort zones to do these recordings. All of my presenters from last year came back and said, yes, it was pushing them out of their comfort zones, but they know that building this connection and this relationship with our students is important,” Glover said.

The Peoria County AITC program serves some 250 classrooms in the county and 50 schools. Glover offers seven topics for teachers.

Each topic has a 15- to 20-minute presentation and a hands-on activity.

This year, the seven topics remain, those were chosen earlier than usual, at the meeting of the AITC committee in February versus the usual May. But how the lessons are being delivered to students and classrooms has shifted.

Glover is still offering the inperson option and said a handful of schools have chosen that option and are allowing presenters into schools. A second option is a recorded Zoom lesson for students, and a third option is a virtual live meeting, where students can have a question-andanswer period with the presenter and can also see the hands-on activity.

While the response hasn’t been as robust yet as Glover hoped, she is encouraged that the numbers of teachers and students participating will continue to grow.

“It’s not as big as in the past, but we still are able to get the information out to all the teachers so they can share the information and we are doing our best to provide some other options,” she said.

IN THE BAG

When schools closed in March, Thea Gernand didn’t close up shop for the Vermilion County Ag in the Classroom. She kept the ag literacy messages going.

“I let the teachers get a handle on things. In the meantime, I was

delivering ag mags to the school lunches and also in the packets that students took home. I was doing that through the end of the year,” said Gernand, who just started her second year as the county AITC coordinator.

Gernand’s Ag Bags, a bag containing the ag-themed lesson, lesson plan and all the materials that teachers and parents needed for the lesson, proved popular for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year.

“I started to do our Ag Bag events in mid-April. Teachers and parents would give me a call and reserve however many they needed for their classroom or their student. Then I had the Ag Bags on a table at the front of our office and they could pick their Ag Bags up. We had four of those events. I know the teachers were still trying to figure things out, but good educational way to give the kids something to do at home,” Gernand said.

This year, Gernand has carried on with the Ag Bags. She introduced herself in a video that took the place of the open house she usually has in August for teachers.

Teachers can sign up for a virtual lesson with Gernand appearing virtually in the classroom via SMARTBoard or, for remote learners, Gernand joining their classroom in a remote session or they can sign up to have a link to a YouTube video of the lesson. All of the options come with the Ag Bags, which Gernand is delivering.

The Ag Bags have been popular with teachers and so far, the YouTube video option has received the largest number of requests as teachers juggle multiple classrooms.

“The teachers like it because they don’t have to prep and everything is right there for them,” Gernand said.

While some schools and students have had issues with connectivity, Gernand said everyone is learning to work with technology that may be unfamiliar.

“It’s new for the teachers. It’s the first time doing this. We are working together and solving technical issues. It’s a learning curve for everyone, but it’s a good one because it’s going to have us grow and that’s a good thing,” she said.

Rhodora Collins has been the Ag in the Classroom coordinator for DeKalb County for 22 years. Collins sees the challenges faced by teachers in schools throughout the county as they adjust to different classroom settings. She also knows firsthand the challenges faced by parents who have children doing remote learning at home since her daughter is one of those students who are doing remote learning. Collins is working to find a balance to keep ag literacy lessons flowing to classrooms and to find material that brings the ag message while keeping students occupied.

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BQA training highlights cattle handling techniques:

Program certifies producers in best management practices

BY MARTHA BLUM AgriNews Publications MAPLE PARK, Ill. — Responsible, thoughtful cattle management is the focus of the Beef Quality Assurance program.

“We want to make every day a good day for the animal, so they’re producing a safe, wholesome beef product,” said Travis Meteer, BQA coordinator in Illinois.

“Illinois has had a BQA program since the late ‘90s, and we’ve seen great adoption of BQA in the last 10 years,” said Meteer about the national program that is funded and maintained by the Beef Checkoff.

“It comes down to healthy animals are what farmers want and healthy animals produce a safe, wholesome beef supply,” said Meteer, who also is a University of Illinois Extension educator and beef specialist.

“We were one of the first ones to get certified and now all my employees are certified,” said Mike Martz, partner in the three-generation Larson Farms, near Maple Park, that markets about 7,000 head of cattle annually.

“The program is a good step by step-by-step process to update yourself and to look at your operation to see if there is anything I could change that will make things better,” Martz said.

For the BQA program, cattlemen attend an educational course taught by specialists such as Meteer and then take a test about husbandry techniques before they receive a certification that is valid for three years. The program also is available online at www.bqa.org.

“The curriculum for BQA we present is based on sound advice, and a lot of BQA programs involve a veterinarian,” Meteer said.

Martz initially achieved his BQA certification due to his involvement with the Illinois Farm Families program, which included welcoming suburban moms to the cattle operation for a tour.

“I could see that consumers wanted to be confident that we’re doing things right,” Martz said. “Consumers are demanding this, and if we don’t have consumers, we don’t have a business.”

With all the employees BQA certified, Martz said, this puts everybody on the same page.

“I like people to question why we’re doing something, and now it’s not just coming from me,” he said. “Everybody is involved in the program, so that makes it easier for the farm to make things better.”

In addition to the BQA cattle management program, Martz also has his BQA transportation certification.

“I was in leadership of the Illinois Beef Association when that program started, so I wanted to see what they were covering during the training,” he said.

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Mike Martz Some companies require a BQA transportation certification for those delivering cattle to processing facilities.

“Tyson started by requiring it for the driver, and now they require the certification for everyone who works with cattle,” Martz said. “I record my certification number every time I deliver cattle to Tyson.”

“One of topics we elaborate on is low stress animal handling during the training,” Meteer said. “A lot of these techniques make sense to the cattle producers because they innately know what’s good for the animals and they are excited to go home and use these ideas to handle animals better.”

Producers have the opportunity to become BQA certified at these upcoming BQA meetings, which all begin at 6 p.m.: • Dec. 2 — Carthage Livestock Inc., Carthage.

• Dec. 3 — Reel Livestock Center, Congerville.

• Dec. 8 — Walnut Auction Sales, Walnut.

• Dec. 9 — Fairview Sale Barn, Fairview.

• Dec. 10 — Greenville Livestock Auction, Greenville.

BQA trainings are free to Illinois Beef Association members and costs $20 for non-IBA members. The fee includes a meal and training materials. Pre-registration is encouraged by calling the IBA office at 217-787-4280.

“Typically we get from 40 to 60 producers at a meeting, and we’ve had as many as close to 150 producers at an event,” Meteer said.

“The BQA program is about making sure beef cattle producers are doing the best for their animals so they can do the best for them,” he said.

Martha Blum can be reached at 815-223-2558, ext. 117, or marthablum@ agrinews-pubs.com. Follow her on Twitter at: @AgNews_Blum.

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