IS AGRICULTURE A BAD WORD?

In my slow season I sub at local schools, from elementary to high school and I run across the same thing. Most kids have no clue what 'AGRICULTURE" means. They use it every day and see it every day, it may not be in the traditional forms but it there. The kids still think of a farmer in overalls sitting on tractor. And has we all know not all of us wear overalls. The word "AGRICULTURE" to city kids doesn't have the warm fuzzy memories our parents have or even some I have. What most of of our inner city youth knows about agriculture comes from our media and it isn't all positive.

It boggles my mind how "Earth Science" is no longer apart of a agriculture classes but purely just a science class. I find it funny how we have all these school gardens but no one is teaching them "AGRICULTURE" its "GARDENING". I know I might be standing on a soap box but if no one teaches the kids they are truly learning about agriculture how can we except these kids to appreciate the industry.

We praise schools for having school gardens and science programs, but we are first to cut the Agriculture departments. I don't think every school needs a Agriculture department but if you are going to teach the kids about aspects of Agriculture make sure they walk away with an understanding of the word and the industry.

NEW NAME!?!

New name? Is probably what most people are thinking. And the very next question is why. Well that is a very good question. I am changing the name of the company not the programs. The name of the company now represents what we are about and what we strive to bring to the general public. We will still be providing the same high quality and standards that we strive to bring to our clients and audience.

 The official name of the company is: AGademics.  We are an agriculture education company and I believe our name now reflects that. Of course Barn Tours is not going anywhere! The Barn Tours program is here to stay. Now all our programs: Farm Planet (educational material), Barn Tours (fair tours), Agademics (school presentations) and consulting are all represented by one name AGademics.  We will be updating our websites, social media,  and logos after the first of the year to represent all our changes. I hope that everyone understands the change and looks forward to it as much as we do.

Great Media Interview Tips from the Farm Bureau

Theses are some great tips for any type of interview.

TOP TEN TIPS:

1. Deterime your audience goal in advance

2. Practice what you plan to say and how to say it

3. Focus on and repeat your key message

4. Think and speak in headlines

5. Keep your answers brief

6. Say what you want to say then stop

7. Avoid industry jargon and acronyms

8. Remember who your audience is

9. Never go off record

10. Be respectful of reporters and meet their deadlines

NYS Lamb & Wool Festival

This year we went to the New York State Lamb & Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, NY. We had so much fun and meet so many people that have enjoyed Barn Tours through out the years. We set up a interactive educational display all about agriculture and the animals revolving around wool production.  We had so many kids enjoy the game 'Plinko' they tested their knowledge of agriculture and the animals displayed in the banners. The kids walked away with T-shirts, hats, pencils,  key chains an of course learning one thing new agriculture.

We loved being in up state New York and watching the fall colors change. The festival brought out so many different vendors of wool and wool products. I have never seen so many different shades of yarn. And the amount of people that braved the cold the first day for the festival  was staggering. The breed display showed many breeds of sheep I wasn't familiar with and it was nice to see as well as be educated by. With over 900 breeds of sheep is hard to be familiar with them all. For more pictures from our experience at the 2010 Lamb & Wool Festival check out our Facebook page.

OCTOBER IS NATIONAL PORK MONTH!!!

OCTOBER IS NATIONAL PORK MONTH!!!

Here is some fun facts about swine in honor of it being national pork month. 

* A group can be called a herd or sounder

* A pig can run a mile in 7 minutes

* They are considered to be 4th in line for intelligence.

* You can find swine on every continent but Antartica

*You can find more fun facts about bacon online than pork or pigs.

*Pigs have 4 toes on each foot but only walk on 2

* An average size litter is 8-11 piglets.

* Even the squeal is used on a pig, next time you watch Jurassic park they used pig squeals to make up some dinosaur sounds.

* They have over 15,000 taste buds more than any other mammal, including humans.

* Mud is a natural cooling agent and bug repellent for pigs.

* Swine can not sweat

And this is just the tip of the iceberg of the fun facts about swine. Feel free to add some more. We love fun facts about agriculture

NEW THINGS COMING !!

Barn Tours has been around for about 20 years and I have owned it the last 4.5 years.  I love my job and the people I get to meet because of my job. In the last 4.5 years Barn Tours has started to branch out to try new things and create new programs for the business.  I have tried to revamp the company so that it follows my goals and ideas on where I think Barn Tours should be going. So I have been very busy racking my brain along with others to figure out how to just do that while still keeping with the original ideas of why Barn Tours was founded.

I'm not quite ready to let the cat out of the bag and tell what is exactly going on. But know it is big and exciting and its killing me that I can not share it with you yet. Those who know Barn Tours and have worked with us I hope you welcome and love the new changes we are gonna make and those who have yet to experience us I hope they love what we are doing and want to jump on the band wagon. So stay tuned and look out for the 'New & Improved" version of Barn Tours to debuting soon.

September is Chicken month!!!

Since September is Chicken month I thought I would share some of my favorite chicken fun facts!!! Please feel free to add your favorite chicken fun facts!!!

*Americans eat 8 billion chcickens a year

* most yolks found in a egg was 9

* longest flight recorded of a chicken is 301.5 feet

*Chickens are omnivores

* There are more chickens on earth than humans

* Chickens can run up to 9 miles per hour

* Red earlobed chickens lay brown eggs, White earlobed chickens lay white eggs

* An egg as over 8,000 pores on it

* It takes an average 24-26 hours for a hen to lay an egg