Friday, June 28, 2019

Day 10 (part 2) - Ms. Jordan Heinke

Today we visited two very unique industries that most of the students don’t have very much experience in. During our day I was able to observe so many different changes in the students, whether it be in their knowledge, perspective or new interests.
Our first visit of the day was Heaven’s Hill Alpacas. This farm breeds and sells alpacas for breeding, showing, fiber, and meat. They own multiple championship winning males and predominantly select breeding stock to produce black and grey alpacas. During this visit I observed many different things that made the students brains seem to turn. This is a new industry that only one of our 12 students had any experience in. Most of our students have an understanding of livestock being bred and used for consumption purposes, whether that be meat or dairy products. The unique aspect about this industry is that they are used not only for meat, which is a new practice here in America, but they are also used for showing, breeding and fiber. These animals are also very easy to take care of, no bathing or brushing required, just one body clipping a year and they even potty in the same spot every time. However, the students were very worried to hear about how easily the alpacas can be affected from internal parasites and that finding a perfect management practice is crucial for their survival. Most people look at these animals as cuddly pets, but in reality, they are family’s livelihoods. Watching the students take in this new information about this very interesting species and type was a wonderful experience.
Our second visit today was at the Certified Angus Beef(CAB) world headquarters. This visit was enlightening for the students and I saw many lights bulbs go off throughout the visit. CAB is a one stop shop for everything angus beef. This is a non-profit organization that practically covers and handles every need they have. They have a marketing, design, packing, communications, event planning, chefs, test kitchen, photo studio, brand assurance, education team, value added product teams and so much more. They spoke to the students about how they used to outsource most of their needs, and it was very expensive. Now they have their own little department for everything, that way they can do it all in house and it cuts cost in half. The students were in awe over the amount of different job opportunities there were within one industry and organization. Students asked questions like “If most of you are fairly new employees (2yr or less) how do you guys have so much money and room for new employees all the time.” To this question they answered that they were very successful in their mission and their organization was growing fast. The CAB mission:
“To increase demand for registered Angus cattle through a specification-based, branded beef program to identify consistent, high quality beef with superior taste.”
I think one of the most important lessons that the students learned during this visit was “city folk are important”. Without the city folk we would have no one to sell our beef, no one to market our beef, no one to cook it and serve it at restaurants. CAB spoke in detail to the students about the opportunities they offer for these folks to come and learn all about beef, where they come from, how they are raised and most importantly how to cook it!

  

  


It was exciting for Hillsdale FFA members and their teacher, Lindsay Bowen, to join us at CAB and later travel to Atterholt Farms with us. 

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