Supervised Agriculture Experience

SAE is part of a complete and
successful program

      I had the experience recently to attend another SAE (supervised agriculture experience) visit with my cooperating teacher! For my followers that don't know agricultural education is so much more then just FFA and what happens in the classroom its also about applying what is learned during class time outside of class in the form of some type of project. Check out this cool three circle model we  in the Ag Ed world use to define our complete program! Students are in charge of these projects that can be anything from raising or breeding animals, working or shadowing a local agricultural business, to growing crops….and even more.
      This past week I had the opportunity to check up on an SAE visit with Mr. Hines. One of the students is raising a market steer to take to the local fair. They will show the steer and then sell the animal for consumption to a local buyer. Now the student is responsible for proper care of the animal and training it for show. This is a huge job!…especially with a steer.
      After catching his ear tag on something in the pen, the steer had damaged his ear to the point the ear tag came out. This is a rare occasion but does happen. Mr. Hines had the student call the extension office to explain the situation and get a new ear tag. The extension office then talked to Mr. Hines to verify the situation. This can be a highly controversial topic especially with steers. A lot of money and time goes into these projects and sometimes cheating can be questioned.
      Upon arrival to the students barn Mr. Hines and myself could clearly tell from looking at the steer and the pen that this was the same steer and cheating was not a question. We put the ear tag in the other ear and the steer was good to go!
       Another exciting day in the life of my ag teachers! After teaching all day we helped out with the SAE project and then went to the hardware store to buy supplies for the greenhouse.

Happy Steer! 

Getting Ready! 

Mr. Hines replacing the
ear tag.
Please note: The steer was not hurt in the replacing of the ear tag and was fine after loosing the first one!