The Tunkhannock Area High School’s FFA held their Elementary Agricultural Education Days on June 6th and 7th at Tunkhannock Area’s four elementary schools. The Wyoming/Lackawanna County Dairy Princess, Emma Loch, and Dairy Maid Jewel Tyler were in attendance both days to help educate the students. Elementary Ag Days has been an activity of the Tunkhannock Area’s FFA for years. It is meant to expose students, ranging from Head Start to 3rd grade to all different aspects of agriculture. At this year’s event, there was a horse, pig, chicken, market lamb, donkeys, dairy calf, The Dairy Princess Court, and a planting station where students discovered soil and plant care. The children went home with knowledge of agriculture and a plant to nature and watch grow.
As part of this event Dairy Princess, Emma, talked to the students about animal care, reinforcing what they learned about the Holstein calf. The students learned that, just like they need certain nutrients in their diets cattle also need these things. Cattle need protein, vitamins, minerals, fiber, energy, many of the same things our bodies need. The students helped make a Total Mixed Ration, or TMR, like the cattle would eat substituting human foods to represent the things cattle eat. Farmers feed TMR so their cattle eat a nutrient balanced ration in every mouthful she takes. The students used mini shredded wheats, representing the forage in the diet. They used Corn Puffs to represent corn, which the cattle use for energy. Honey smacks were representative of soy for protein. Raisins were used for minerals, and Fruity pebbles for vitamins. They also used M&M’s to represent the water in the diet. Emma also asked the students how much water they think a cow drinks in a day. The answers ranged from 1 gallon to 5 gallons. A cow will drink a bathtub full of water a day.
Dairy Maid Jewel talked to the students about the importance of dairy in their diets. They need protein to build strong muscles, calcium and vitamin D to build strong bones, were some of the things they talked about. FFA member, Rae Anne Carpenter who was the 2016- 2017 Dairy Princess, came along on Friday to help Jewel out. The ladies did Tie Dye Milk with the students. What is tie dye milk you ask? To do this activity you need a few items. A plastic plate or shallow bowl, milk, food coloring q-tips, and liquid dish soap. Place enough milk to cover the bottom of your plate, we used disposable plastic plates, place a drop of the different food colorings into the milk. Next dip the q-tip into the dish soap, gently touch the food coloring spot with the q-tip and watch the colors move. The dish soap breaks up the fat molecules in the milk making the food coloring spread and move.
The children loved interacting with the calf, donkeys, chicken, lamb and horse, they listened very well to all that the speakers had to say. The Dairy Princess Promotion team would like to thank the Tunkhannock FFA chapter for the invitation to attend as well as for their assistance along the way.
— Emma Loch, Wyoming-Lackawanna Counties Dairy Princess
Wyoming-Lackawanna Dairy Princess 