Got Milk?!: On-Farm Employment SAE Visit

For me there was no better way to finish up student teaching than to go on one more SAE visit. This time I was heading over to the family farm of Ms. Emily Kahler. Emily is absolutely one of my favorite students and one I can't wait to see what she accomplishes once she leaves Tri-Valley in just a few months. Emily is a senior in my Ag Science class and is finishing up her term as the Chapter President. She was one of the first students I met when I began my journey with Tri-Valley last spring so I think it’s fitting that she gets to be one of the ones I finish it with.

Emily, along with her older brother, is the third generation on their family’s dairy farm. Currently milking approximately 90 Holstein dairy cows, the farm is solely operated by her parents and older brother, with Emily helping when she’s not in school and every now and then Granma comes down to help out.

Emily’s main job on the farm is caring for the calves and young heifers, responsible for the afternoon shift of watering and feeding all the calves in hutches and the younger heifers that have been moved into the end of the free-stall barn. It’s clear that Emily enjoys working with the young calves, and it’s easy to see why looking at the row of cute black and white calves lining the entrance to the farm.

Emily’s true passion is in graphic design, but while we worked alongside her taking care of the calves and touring the farm, we talk about the possibilities of using her graphic design experience in the agriculture field after she graduates from college.

Once the calves were fed and we met up with her brother to learn about the nutritional aspect of the farm, we headed down to the parlor led by our unofficial tour guide, King the family dog. Normally her parents handle all the milking by themselves, taking about three hours twice a day, but when Emily’s there she jumps right in, so we got to see Emily working along side her parents while her mom caught Mrs. D and I up on the town gossip.

It was a great, relaxing way to finish out student teaching and it was nice to spend a beautiful (but slightly chilly) day outside, enjoying the smell of cows and hay. I’ve really enjoyed getting to work with Emily all semester long, watching her receive her Keystone Degree in January and then working with her on her record-books, Proficiency and Scholarship Applications. I cant wait to see what great things she does next.

Checking out the Chickens: On-Farm Employment SAE Visit

One of the main things that sets agricultural education apart from other education fields is our three-circle model of classroom & laboratory instruction, leadership development through the FFA, and our Supervised Agricultural Experiences (SAE's). I believe that SAE's can be the easiest or hardest part of the model to implement, and that difference all relies in how you (as the agricultural educator) can package the opportunity for your students to develop real-life, hands-on work experience in the field of agriculture outside of the typical 8am-3pm (insert whatever hours your school operates) school day.

Many of my students have a Supervised Agricultural Experience, the majority being Entrepreneurship or Placement. Here at Tri-Valley we conduct almost all of our official SAE visits over the summer, especially those of our students who have entrepreneurship projects as many of them exhibit at the County Fair over the summer. Since I'm new to the community we decided to go check out some of our students' SAE's, starting with one of my students who has an on-farm placement.


Meet Nathan - Nathan is a junior in several of my ag. classes and also our Chapter Treasurer. One of my favorites in the classroom (don't worry there are several), he is always ready for a good time and seems happiest when working in the shop with the other boys. His main employment is with the Zimmerman's on a poultry and beef production farm, where he has many daily tasks but the biggest responsibility is the daily culling of the chicken flocks in the four chicken houses.

Now I will begin by saying that before this visit I knew very little about poultry production. I was just starting to teach my poultry science class and so I was just starting to learn about the poultry industry and as I was to learn on this visit, the poultry industry plays a big part in my part of Schuylkill County. So my SAE visit first started with a driving tour of Pitman, one of the main towns around Hegins (where the school is located) and where Mrs. D and several of my students live and work. It was a beautiful February afternoon, cold but sunny, and a perfect day to spend driving through town learning the town landmarks and seeing where several of the farms are located.


There were no preparations to be made ahead of time other than scheduling the visit and remembering to bring jeans and boots to wear, and as we drove up a slight hill flanked by fruit trees we arrived at the Zimmerman's. After introducing me to Sam, Nathan's boss and one of the farm's owners, Nathan, Mrs. D and I loaded up into the golf cart as Nathan drove us to our first chicken house to begin his shift.

Now Nathan did forewarn me about what I would experience walking into the chicken house but nothing could prepare me for the immediate fogging of my glasses and overwhelming smell of ammonia as we entered the massive but tiny (and fluffy) flocks of over 2,000 chicks per house. Nathan's job was to walk through each of the chicken houses and collect any deceased chickens, and also cull any chickens that were not reaching the level of health and growth they should based on their age.


I was amazed both at how much Nathan could know about the birds' health by looking at them and also by Nathan's ability to explain everything he was doing and how everything operates to me. Nathan is usually one of my students who doesn't always want to talk and participate in class so it was a great experience for me to see him in his element explaining how he monitors the chickens' health when to me they all looked like a massive group of walking yellow fluff-balls.

Having to evaluate the program, it was clear that Nathan was learning skills along the way. He was not just picking up dead chickens as it might first appear. He was learning how to monitor the chickens' health via physical signs, how to selectively cull birds before issues could become worse or birds could use up many resources, and learning about how the business production works as a whole. His tasks changed based on the season and appeared that he continued to grow in responsibility.


His biggest recommendation for improvement was to improve his record keeping skills. He had been keeping his records in his hard-copy record-book. We suggested he move over to the online AET system so he could update it on his phone while he was at work, and getting him to switch over is a work in progress.

Overall, at Tri-Valley we "grade" their overall SAE program on their record-keeping skills and some students are better than others. We also grade it based on the interactions we have with students at their placements or with their entrepreneurship projects at Fair - can the students explain what they are doing and the reasoning behind it or are they just completing tasks, and it seems that most students are doing a good job at finding projects that work for them and also allow them to grow in some function.

Overall, I had a great first visit for the semester, and learned a lot about chickens and my student Nathan, and I'm looking forward to my next visit.

Supervised Agricultural Experiences: Schuykill County Fair

Thursday, July 31st, 2014: The day started out a little stressful - after sending the Gov. School scholars off to their class I headed to get my first car rental and start my solo road-trip down to the Schuylkill County Fairgrounds. After a relaxing (eventually) three hour car ride, I arrived at one of my first Pennsylvania county fairs. The familiar smell of fair food and livestock automatically confirmed that this was going to be a great day.

Display for the Tri Valley FFA Chapter in the family tent

I found Mrs. D (Mrs. Dingman but all her students affectionately call her Mrs. D) in the livestock barns right where I knew she'd be. Today was my SAE (Supervised Agricultural Experience) visit and it was also the Fair's sale day, so it was a big day for many of the FFA members busily milling about the barn. Mrs. D explained to me that a majority of her students have SAE projects, most of which are livestock which the students then show and sell at the fair. The first hour or so I was there, Mrs. D had logistics she had to handle as she is on the County Fair board, so she introduced me to several of her students and left me with them to show me around.

The livestock barns were filled with families - almost every student I talked to had several relatives also showing against them, either through the FFA or the local 4H club, which also meant I am going to have several sets of siblings and cousins in my classrooms. The students were represented in every species at the fair - rabbits, goats, sheep, beef and dairy-beef cattle, and hogs. After talking to the students for awhile I started talking to several of the parents and other family members that were in the barn, letting the students get back to preparing for the sale that evening. All the parents welcomed me into their school, and raved about Mrs. D's dedication to the FFA and her involvement in the students' lives. Many of the parents had grown up in the area and had gone through the agricultural education program (before Mrs. D arrived) and you could see the pride they had in watching and supporting their children in participating in the various FFA events, including showing livestock.

Mrs. D soon arrived back and we went over logistics of the fair and she explained her SAE policy. Students in her agriculture classes are encouraged but not required to have SAE projects, but her FFA members are, and most already come to the program with potential projects started because of livestock projects. To handle SAE visits, she has a form the students complete before the end of the school year, which has a list of dates the students can choose from where she will visit with them and check up on their projects. Most of her visits were earlier in the summer as the students were preparing for fair, and operated very similar to my experience with the parents in the barn - Mrs. D checks out the student's project(s) and then catches up with the student and their family, learning about how their summer is going and any life updates. SAE visits for her are very informal and she uses them mostly to stay updated and involved in her students' lives and keep in contact with the families. 

Working with other volunteers to register buyers for the sale

I had previously told Mrs. D that I wanted to be right by her side and experience everything she does as the agriculture teacher, so after going over her SAE process and grabbing some of the great fair food, Mrs. D told me that since she was on the fair board I would be helping her get the arena set up for the sale and then helping her, the 4H leader and several other volunteers keep records during the sale. I'd been to several sales before, mostly at the PA Farm Show, so I thought this county fair sale would be an easy night for me - boy was I wrong. After helping the FFA and 4H members set up the sale ring I began helping to register buyers, keeping track of all the paperwork and buyer numbers. I never expected so many buyers, over 200, for a fair of this size but I was happily mistaken. Community members from all over the county were there to help support the youth involved in agriculture, through their kind words and buying of animals.

The fast-talking auctioneer I had to keep up with

After registering all of the buyers came the hardest part - keeping track of sale prices and buyers of the livestock. Elbow to elbow with Mrs. D, the 4H leader, and several other volunteers, all our focus was on the auctioneer just a few feet away to make sure we kept accurate records. The next few hours flew by and after over eight hours at the fair, I finally had to start my journey home. It was a great day of being thrown right back into the livestock world, getting to meet future students and their families, and meeting key community members, like the 4H leader, that I know will be really helpful when I begin my semester there.

The view of the crowd from behind the sale arena

One of my students & one of his Grand Champion rabbits

I can't wait to work with those students more, especially during my animal science courses and getting to know them more through future SAE visits. My day ended with the sale continuing in my rear view mirror, my car filled with the smell of livestock and hay, and my radio blasting the local country station, and I could not have had a better way to end July.

Loved this FFA member's confidence as she walked into the sale arena!