Future Farmers of America (Page 4/6)
maryjane OCT 19, 12:41 AM
Not location specific. Era. I was in FFA in the 60s.
OldsFiero OCT 21, 09:10 AM
I too, was an FFA member in school as were two brothers before me. My older brother Pete used to tell our father that it stood for Father Farms Alone. Looking back, I find that ironic because the year he graduated he was going to take over the farm. That fall my younger brother and I came home from school in early September to find the cows in the corn. I took a shortcut through the barnyard to open the gate so we could herd the cows back in. I found the gate pulled open because one of our tractors was against the fence. I found my deceased brother under the hind tire of the tractor. We think he was hooking up the PTO driven blower belt to put corn in the silo and it slipped off and he tried to catch the tractor as it rolled away.
Years later when my mother was in her nineties, my daughter worked at the Salvation Army one summer. She was sorting out clothing and found an FFA jacket with his name on it. Mom never asked any of us if we wanted it. I guess she was finally beginning to let go. My daughter brought it home. I tried to put it on but it was tight. I never realized he was smaller than me, but I was nine when he died.
Our little school here just hired an Ag teacher. We haven't had an ag program here in years do budget concerns. She and her husband have a farm with 70 head of Shorthorns. As far as I know, they are the only ones milking that breed in the county.
The school has had a trap shooting team for a few years now as well. Maybe they have figured out that life here is more than IT and AI.

Marc


I just edited this because when I submitted it, the paragraphs disapeared. I put them back and they are gone again. Shrug.

[This message has been edited by OldsFiero (edited 10-21-2023).]

82-T/A [At Work] OCT 21, 01:30 PM

quote
Originally posted by OldsFiero:

I too, was an FFA member in school as were two brothers before me. My older brother Pete used to tell our father that it stood for Father Farms Alone. Looking back, I find that ironic because the year he graduated he was going to take over the farm. That fall my younger brother and I came home from school in early September to find the cows in the corn. I took a shortcut through the barnyard to open the gate so we could herd the cows back in. I found the gate pulled open because one of our tractors was against the fence. I found my deceased brother under the hind tire of the tractor. We think he was hooking up the PTO driven blower belt to put corn in the silo and it slipped off and he tried to catch the tractor as it rolled away.
Years later when my mother was in her nineties, my daughter worked at the Salvation Army one summer. She was sorting out clothing and found an FFA jacket with his name on it. Mom never asked any of us if we wanted it. I guess she was finally beginning to let go. My daughter brought it home. I tried to put it on but it was tight. I never realized he was smaller than me, but I was nine when he died.
Our little school here just hired an Ag teacher. We haven't had an ag program here in years do budget concerns. She and her husband have a farm with 70 head of Shorthorns. As far as I know, they are the only ones milking that breed in the county.
The school has had a trap shooting team for a few years now as well. Maybe they have figured out that life here is more than IT and AI.

Marc

I just edited this because when I submitted it, the paragraphs disapeared. I put them back and they are gone again. Shrug.



Sorry to hear that Marc... I don't have a Joe Biden Kitchen fire story to compare that to, but I did lose my older brother as well many years ago. He'll forever be 28.

I've done equally silly things... thinking I can stop a vehicle as it's rolling. There was a van backing into my Fiero about ~20+ years ago... and I reached my hand out as if I was somehow going to push it out of the way. That didn't work out as I had planned.
82-T/A [At Work] NOV 13, 06:46 AM
They just got two new fuzzy baby cows... not sure if they are babies or teenagers. But one of them is all white and really fuzzy. The cow was running around and jumping and playing and whatever it is that young cows do... while the other one was getting hosed off by one of the girls in FFA.

The day after, there were a pair of hogs running around in the same pen with the pigs. And another girl was cleaning the big hog with soap and water and some kind of hand-attached brush.

I guess they have chickens too because my daughter also has a D&D club meeting, and one of the girls is raising chickens in FFA (and also does basketball with her), and presented it at the Hillsborough County Fair (which I apparently missed).


maryjane NOV 13, 07:34 AM
The neighbor behind and immediately to the left of me in this subdivision has chickens and a rooster, behind a 6' privacy fence of course. For the 1st few months I lived here, I thought I was going nuts, hearing them. Evidently, not uncommon around here, since this subdivision has no (thankfully) HOA. For a couple of weeks, I would take my laptop out to the back porch, and on 'loop' play a loud youtube video of cattle being worked, with lots of 'mooing'. Jane made me stop. She heard enough of that when I weaned calves off their mommas and had the calves in the working pens about 50 yards from the house. Between the calves wanting mama and the mamas wanting their calves, it got loud and went on several days and nights.
blackrams NOV 13, 09:40 AM

quote
Originally posted by maryjane:

The neighbor behind and immediately to the left of me in this subdivision has chickens and a rooster, behind a 6' privacy fence of course. For the 1st few months I lived here, I thought I was going nuts, hearing them. Evidently, not uncommon around here, since this subdivision has no (thankfully) HOA. For a couple of weeks, I would take my laptop out to the back porch, and on 'loop' play a loud youtube video of cattle being worked, with lots of 'mooing'. Jane made me stop. She heard enough of that when I weaned calves off their mommas and had the calves in the working pens about 50 yards from the house. Between the calves wanting mama and the mamas wanting their calves, it got loud and went on several days and nights.



That brought back many memories from back in the day. Yeah, they can get loud. Same with mares and their colts, just a higher pitch. Thanks for reminding me.

Rams
82-T/A [At Work] NOV 13, 06:18 PM

quote
Originally posted by maryjane:

The neighbor behind and immediately to the left of me in this subdivision has chickens and a rooster, behind a 6' privacy fence of course. For the 1st few months I lived here, I thought I was going nuts, hearing them. Evidently, not uncommon around here, since this subdivision has no (thankfully) HOA. For a couple of weeks, I would take my laptop out to the back porch, and on 'loop' play a loud youtube video of cattle being worked, with lots of 'mooing'. Jane made me stop. She heard enough of that when I weaned calves off their mommas and had the calves in the working pens about 50 yards from the house. Between the calves wanting mama and the mamas wanting their calves, it got loud and went on several days and nights.




Ah man... I don't want to be unmanly or anything... but I really just want to give that little white cow a big hug. Not like how the Taliban hug animals... but just like a big hug because I feel bad for the poor guy sleeping in that pen. When I drive by this morning, he (she?) was standing up and nuzzling / sniffing the bigger white cow that was in the pen right next to it (which was one of the original full adult cows). No idea if they're related. They look the same... just one is big and one is little, but I don't know if they were just hanging out.

Haha... I feel so bad that the cows have to be weened off of their moms / kids. Any reason why that's done?

Totally random, but I was driving by a cow pasture like half a year ago while on a road trip with the family. And there was this baby cow walking under the mom... and the mom just started peeing and pissed all over the baby... I mean like crazy. It was so much that it was obvious to us driving at ~50 miles an hour on a highway and looking at it from 30-40 meters away. Haha...


The kids really look like they're having fun taking care of the animals. I asked my daughter if she would ask the one that's taking care of the chicken, if she can get in touch with the one that manages the cows so my wife and I can go over there and give the little cow a big hug. Hahah... she was like... "Daddy, you are so weird..."

[This message has been edited by 82-T/A [At Work] (edited 11-13-2023).]

htexans1 NOV 27, 03:15 AM
Junction City (Kansas) High School when I went considered itself "too urban" to offer 4H or FFA when I was a student in the eighties. Nearby St Xaviers (Catholic High) didn't have them either. But nearby, Chapman, Abilene, and Manhattan High School (in a much bigger town no less) DID have both 4H and FFA. I saw the blue and gold jackets and saw a lot of the kids at the KS State Fair in Hutchinson, but I didn't really understand it.

Fast forward to today, JCHS new building has the 2nd largest in the US footprint based on square footage and both 4H and FFA programs which are VERY successful and have won State titles. JCHS has a pasture with some livestock, right next to a brand new subdivision of McMasions. lol Anyway, just goes to show you that just because the Big Red One (Army) is nearby, your never "too big" to host both 4H and FFA at your school

ROCK ON!

Had FFA been available, I would have taken it at JCHS, and had no problem doing it. Why? Skills learned there can be used to survive on, literally, even if you don't live in a rural area.

Topeka, the capital of Kansas, has neither FFA or 4H programs currently. (town of 130,000) in any of its 5 High Schools.
maryjane NOV 28, 07:53 AM

quote
Haha... I feel so bad that the cows have to be weened off of their moms / kids. Any reason why that's done?



Yes. The 'youngster's' rumens won't develop if left on diet of only momma's milk. Their digestive system needs (preferably) long stem grass to really work right. Cows more so than goats. Producing milk takes a lot of nutrients from the mother, but the big reason, is that leaving the 2 together drags the mother down while she is growing her next calf in uterous. If you don't separate them, it takes a LONG time for the mother's bag (udder) to dry up and she'll just keep producing milk all the time she is carrying her next calf.

Most mommas will kick their calves off naturally at around 6-8 months old but for a significant # of calves, they'll persistently suck milk for a long time, stealing from the next newborn. I've seen a few adult steers, bulls and heifers still trying to nurse their whole lives. Those kind get to meet Ronald McDonald and become happymeals.
OldsFiero NOV 28, 10:22 AM
And if you are a dairy farmer, it means more milk in the bulk tank. But as you said, it takes a toll on the cow. I read recently that the average peak production of a top producing dairy cow is about two years.

8 years after mom died, my wife decided it was time to go through and sort some boxes of photos and memorabilia that she had. In there I found a paper about the national FFA convention. Brother Pete is in the photo somewhere.





Marc