My Summer Adventure

va·ca·tion
noun

an extended period of recreation, especially one spent away from home or in traveling.


Like most people who work on a farm, time off is a rare commodity and this summer I spent most of that time as a 4-H ambassador. As an ambassador, I had the privilege of promoting the 4-H program, by attending 4-H and community events across the province. For more info about 4-H check out my blog post Head, Heart, Hand, Health.

The 2015 4-H Ambassadors

One of my favorite events that I attended as an ambassador was the The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto. While at the Royal, I was able to assist with the 4-H Go For The Gold competition (a trivia competition about 4-H and 4-H projects) as a scorekeeper.

Region 3 vs region 5 in the championship game

Other events I have attended so far this year are:

• Three fairs (Embro, Welland and Sutton)

• Discovery days, a day of hands-on learning about the different parts of 4-H for kids ages 9-12

• A special 100th anniversary of 4-H event at Canada's Wonderland with a Leah Daniels concert.

• A tour put on by the sponsors of the ambassador program GROWMARK FS and UPI Energy LP, with stops at the UPI Bulk Plant (Guelph), GROWMARK Ontario Distribution Centre (Kitchener), FS PARTNERS (Ayr), North Wellington Co-operative Services (Harriston), and a FAST STOP® remotely monitored gas bar (east of Alma)

  Working on a farm, being a student and being active in my community, has kept me busy, but if I were to take a vacation I would love to go to the Netherlands. 

Where would you go on vacation if you could go anywhere?

(Originally written for a school assignment and posted on https://algonquincollegesocialmedia.wordpress.com/)

5 Reasons Why I Am An Agvocate

 

There are many reasons to be an agvocate, but today I am going to tell you five of my reasons.

An agvocate is an individual who actively promotes agriculture in respectful and meaningful ways.

1. I GET TO EDUCATE OTHERS

Every year, there are fewer and fewer farmers in Canada, making farmers a minority group that represents less than 3% of all Canadians. This means that a majority of Canadians have never visited a farm or, if they have visited a farm, they most likely lack understanding about the important role that agriculture plays in all of our lives, and so it's up to us to educate them.  

2. IT ONLY TAKES ONE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

 It only takes one person to initiate change. In my blog post, #farm365, I talked about how a dairy farmer from southwestern Ontario was able to start the #farm365 hashtag that has now become global.

 

3.  WORKING TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE 

Andrew Campbell might have started the #farm365 hashtag, but it takes various types of farmers to show what happens on the many different types of farms.

4. I GET TO TELL OTHERS ABOUT WHAT I DO

Being an agvocate gives me the chance to tell others about what it's like to work on a farm.

5. I GET TO MEET NEW PEOPLE 

By being an agvocate on social media, I have been able to meet many farmers from around the world, as well as advocate for agriculture on a global scale.

4-H Ontario is 100 years old!

4-H ONTARIO IS 100 YEARS OLD!

2015 is a big year for 4-H in Ontario, it is the 100th anniversary

 

2015 is also the the 10th anniversary of the 4-H Ontario ambassador program.

 

The ambassador program provides youth with advanced training in leadership, citizenship, communications and public relations. 4-H Ontario Ambassadors channel their energy and 4-H experiences into recruiting new members, representing 4-H Ontario youth at functions, and sharing the 4-H story. for more info about the ambassador program check out the 4-H Ontario website here.

This year the ambassadors are Ava Doner, Cailen Bromley, Laura Scott, Gina Posthumus, Olivia Bolender and myself.  

From left to right: Nic Willemsma, Ava Doner, Cailen Bromley, Laura Scott, Gina Posthumus, Olivia Bolender

As 4-H ambassadors we have the privilege of promoting the 4-H program by attending 4-H and community events across the province, with a chance of attending national and International opportunities that might become available. 

At the end of Feb I went to Guelph for the Ambassador Training weekend Reception. 

The training took place at the 4-H Ontario office in Rockwood, with the reception held Saturday night at the Holiday Inn in Guelph. 




The next thing on my agenda was a teleconference with the my fellow ambassadors and our staff contact at 4-H, We received Updates from 4-H and discussed ideas to help us during our year as ambassador.


I looking forward to attending many events as throughout Ontario to promote the great program has to to offer.

The 4-H ambassador program is sponsored by UPI Energy LP and GROWMARK, Inc.

Head, Heart, Hand, Health

 

Head, Heart, Hand, Health

 

4-H is an organization with many great opportunities for youth between the ages of 9 to 21. In 2013 a new program was started called Cloverbuds for ages 6-8, In Cloverbuds kids get a taste of the topics covered in 4-H projects, while also developing an understanding of 4-H values.

4-H Ontario is divided into local associations. Each association has clubs that you can join,  clubs need  a minimum of six 4-H Members and two trained, screened Volunteers who act as Club Leaders. Members spend 12 hours, normally six, two-hour meetings exploring the topic of that project. Currently 4-H Ontario has over 100 different projects (topics) to chose from.

The 4-H motto of “Learn to do by Doing” is reinforced with members taking the positions of youth leader, president, vice president, secretary, press-reporter and treasurer.  All club meetings are run according to parliamentary procedure and include elements of public speaking, judging, leadership skills and decision making. 4-H is very community minded and many clubs hold their achievement day at a local fair for the public to see what the members have accomplished that year.

Local associations have different events for members during the year such as Judging Night, Rally Night(Sign-up), Go for the Gold Competition and other events. Some associations have competitions between each other through regional animal shows, as well as regional Go for the Gold and judging competitions. 4-H Ontario also plans events, camps and conferences to further develop team building and leadership skills.
Some camps and conferences you can attend are:

• discovery days for ages 9-12
• youth adventure camp for ages 12-15
• Future Leaders In Action for ages 16-21 

For the full list of camps and conferences check out the 4-H website 4-hontario.ca


4-H is involved with building future leaders, is an organization that has been around for over 100 years, can be found in approximately 80 other countries and is almost completely run by volunteers.  4-H allows youth a safe environment to learn and grow.

The 4-H pledge is said at the beginning of every 4-H event and meeting. It is a pledge to use our Head to greater thinking, our Heart to greater loyalty, our Hands to larger service and our Health to better living in our Club, our Community and our Country

4-H covers all areas of our lives with the 4 Hs –Head-Heart-Hands-Health, to give our youth a well balanced lifestyle. 

For more information about 4-H check out the 4-H Ontario website 4-hontario.ca

Got Milk? How milk gets from the Cow to cup

Have you ever wondered how the milk you buy at the store got there? 

In order for the milk to get to the store for you to buy it, it most go through many steps.


To start producing milk a dairy cow needs to freshen(A milk cow freshens after she has calved) .

Once a cow starts producing milk, she will get milked 2-3 times a day with a machine called a milker  The milk is then pumped to a big cooler that will keep the milk cool until it is picked up by the milk man.

On most farms the milk gets picked up every other day by an insulated transport tanker that will take the milk to a dairy processing plant. The milk is tested before it is loaded on to the truck and again at the processing plant to make sure it meets strict quality and sanitation regulations. If  the quality of the milk does not meet proper quality standards the farmer will face heavy penalties and/or fines.

Once at the dairy processing plant milk undergoes pasteurization, homogenization, separation and further processing.

Pasteurization machine

Pasteurization: The act or process of heating a food, especially a beverage such as milk or beer, to a specific temperature for a specific period of time in order to kill microorganisms that could cause disease, spoilage, or undesired fermentation. 

Homogenization machine

Homogenization: Involves pushing the raw milk through an atomizer to form tiny particles so that the fat is dispersed evenly throughout the milk, stopping the fat from floating to the top of the container.

Separation: Involves spinning milk through a centrifuge to separate the cream from the milk. After separation, the cream and remaining milk are remixed to provide the desired fat content for the different types of milk being produced. 

For "whole milk," the cream is reintroduced until the fat content reaches 3.25%. For "low fat milk," the fat content is 1%. For "skim milk" (sometimes called nonfat milk) the fat content is .05%. 

Machine for filtering and further processing

 Further processing: Includes micro-filtration, increasing the storage life by ultra high temperature (UHT) treatment, and mixing or culturing milk for flavored and yogurt products.

Once the milk has gone through all its processing it is ready to be packaged and shipped to the store, the milk is kept in a big cooler at the store until you buy it and take it home to enjoy.

(http://milk.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000658)

(http://www.thefreedictionary.com/pasteurization)

Misconceptions in agriculture

Thank you to Chrissie Laymon for the use of her photo. You can follow Chrissie on Twitter @the_farm_life.

In my last post I talked about #farm365 and how farmers are opening their barn doors to the public by using social media. In this post I am going to stay on the agriculture topic, but shift the focus to some lies and misconceptions I see and hear all the time.

 The first one, I talk about a little in my last post #farm365 (COM0011 – Blog Post #5). All the time I hear people talk about farmers abusing their cows or other animals. I find this funny as one adult cow is worth over $2,000 each (more than I payed for my car). Do you really think someone would want to hurt something that is worth that much? I will admit that I have hit a cow, but it was for the better of the cow. In a blog post by Dairycarrie titled Sometimes we are mean to our cows, she talked about a downed cow and how sometimes being mean to them by slapping them or using a cattle prod is for their own health.

Another misconception that I see all the time, is PETA and other animal rights groups take a photo or video and editing it to say something other than what is really happening.

 About a week ago, there was an article going around my Facebook feed called Why I am an Anti-PETA Activist by by M-K Jones. In the post on her blog she tells us about a recently ad put out on the PETA Facebook page using the photo shown to the left. There is just one problem with this ad, if you know anything about sheep you would know that this is a Suffolk which is raised for meat, not wool. A few years back, I worked on a sheep farm and just like when you get a haircut if you move well getting it cut you might get nicked with the clippers, same goes for the sheep when they get Sheared.   

 Back in August 2014 PETA posted a video about a dairy farm in North Carolina, where they claim that the cows are forced to live in their own waste. Dairycarrie also wrote a blog post about this titled PETA’s Undercover North Carolina Dairy Farm Video. Now if you look at this screenshot from the video you can see that their legs are dirty, But if you look closer you will see that they have clean tails and clean bellies which goes to show that they are well cared for as every cow I have seen has had at least a little bit of dirt on their tail/belly. My guess is that in this photo the cows were being moved to another part of the farm but run through this area. Make sure to read the blog post as Carrie goes on point out other problems with the video.



The 2 stories above are some examples of PETA and other animal rights groups trying to tell you lies about what is really happening. The last example I am going to show you is a common one I see all the time. Can you spot which photo has beef calves in it and which photos dairy calves?

Photo #1

Photo #2

Photo #3

   Photo #2 is the beef calves and Photos #1 & #3 are dairy calves. PETA likes to use photo like #1 but say that they are beef calves and think that they can get away with it.

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How do you feel about PETA and other animal rights groups spreading misleading and inaccurate information?
    

#farm365

Thank you to Chrissie Laymon for the use of her photo. You can follow Chrissie on Twitter @the_farm_life.

   Have you ever wondered what happens on a farm? What does a farmer do in his everyday routine? Well then meet Andrew Campbell a dairy farmer and Founder of Fresh Air Media from southwestern Ontario.


 Fresh Air Media is dedicated to educating and informing the agriculture and food sectors about upcoming communication and marketing tools, as well as new trends in technology.
Like many people Andrew made a new years resolution, his resolution is that he would post a pictures of his daily life on the farm every day on his twitter account using the hashtag #farm365 with the goal of helping consumers make the connection from farm to plate. To follow along you can follow Andrew on Twitter @FreshAirFarmer or the hashtag #farm365

 Like Andrew many farmers are using social media to educate the public on the daily happenings on the farm and to show the public where their food comes from.

The Peterson Family in front of their family farm!

Greg, Nathan, and Kendal Peterson better known as the Peterson Farm Bros. on YouTube are known for their agriculture-focused video parodies of popular hit songs. Other videos the brothers have made are informational videos, entertainment videos and their "Life of a Farmer" documentaries. the Life of a Farmer series is split in to 12 videos one for each month of the year, and is about what life on the farm is like. As well as their videos the brothers opened their farm last year on select Saturdays in the summer for a farm tour. For more info on tour dates for this year click here.

Although Andrew started the #farm365 hashtag many other farmers and agricultural advocates including myself have joined in, But since you can not own a hashtag it has allowed for animal rights activists to hijacked the #farm365 hashtag and use it to spreed their own message.

One thing I hear all the time from animal rights activists is that farmers abuse their animals. Yes there are some cases of animal abuse, but a lot of the time what looks like a farmer being mean is for the better of the animal. I know a lot of farmers that care a lot about there animals.

 One of my favorite blog posts on this subject is by dairycarrie in her post titled Sometimes we are mean to our cows Carrie talks about a down cow and what has to be done to get the cow up. http://dairycarrie.com/2013/12/09/cowabuse/


What do you think of the #farm365 hashtag?
Is using social media to open the barn door a good Idea?

 
(https://www.linkedin.com/company/1602991?trk=prof-exp-company-name)

Benefits of homeschooling

Unlike most people I have never attended traditional school, I was educated at home. In this post I am going to go over some of the many benefits of being homeschooled.

   But first I want to list just a few famous homeschoolers you might recognize

• Alexander Graham Bell
• Rebecca Black
• Hilary Duff
• Thomas Edison
• Bethany Hamilton
• The Jonas Brothers
• C. S. Lewis
• Demi Lovato
• Taylor Swift
• Tim Tebow
• Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Theodore Roosevelt
• And many more

Benefits of homeschooling

 

• It allows for a flexible school schedule

Having a flexible schedule for school allowed me to have a job during school hours as I could do my homework when ever I had time, Much like this course.

• It can be tailored to accommodate children with different learning styles

As it is one-on-one teaching the parent can tailor the school work to accommodate each child's learning styles. It also allows parents to work with children with Learning disability such as ADHD, ADD, Dyslexia, etc.

• It prepares you for college

Homeschooled students tend to adjust more quickly to the college setting, because they are used to an independent study atmosphere and to asking questions of adults.

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A few years ago CBC News did a story about homeschooling in my area. They talk about the different styles of homeschooing as well as some benefits of homeschooling.

To end this post I am going to leave you with 2 videos from one of my favorite YouTube channels Blimey Cow.

 And

 References
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_homeschooled_people
 http://exodusmandate.org/?page_id=1331