Summer Jr. High Ag Tour Exciting for Students
Tours include Prairieland Dairy and Nebraska Statewide Arboretum
by Tony Jensen
June 22, 2005
The day started by heading north to the Firth area, where the group met with Dave Obbink, one of the owners of the dairy operation. Obbink told how the operation was ran and gave a tour of the different facilities. The highlight of the tour for students included seeing how technology was implemented into such a large dairy operation. Computer chips on each of the animal's legs are used to monitor the milk production of each animal. Obbink also noted that they are currently looking into ways of marketing natural compost from their operation.
While at Prairieland Dairy, students also got to receive a short demonstration from a man that was making a corn maze for the dairy this year. He talked about the basics of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and showed the students some of the equipment he used to be accurate in the field. This man is actually in the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest corn maze recorded.
After this tour, the students went to the production facilities of the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum and toured their greenhouse, cooling facility (where seeds are kept), and the trial gardens (where plants are tested for adaptability in Nebraska. Each of the students was then given a buckeye and redbud tree to take home to plant.
Students going on this trip included Anna Dorn, Dylan Schoneweis, Jenna Vanderbeek, Brandon Oltman, Amber Mason, Devin Wolken, Ashley Walker, and Evan Buss.
"I think these tours really opened the eyes of the students to see the new technology in the dairy industry and see how there are many things to learn about plants and the horticulture industry," said Mr. Jensen. "Thanks to Prairieland Dairy and the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum for making this tour a success."
