Saturday, January 31

Misconceptions in agriculture

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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.

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


Thursday, January 15

#farm365

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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.


1297651469586_ORIGINAL 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)

Tuesday, January 6

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


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.



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