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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