Agricultural Products Identification Contest

Recently, my siblings and I went to the Heart of Texas fair to participate in Ag Id. Ag Id stands for Agricultural Products Identification Contest which is a contest where youth go to different stations and have  to identify a produce item and answer a question about the item. Station 9 had a picture of grapes and asked which of this product is not a variety grown in Texas? The answer was Edelweiss so you would bubble in D. on your scantron. It sounds easy at first, but you have to study a long list of products and facts about each one. Also there is a lot of competition; we were competing against 45 other teams. The team that I led won 1st place senior team, my sister placed third place high point individual, and I placed high point senior individual and a scholership as well.

Garden

 I realized that I had not done a garden update recently so that is what this post is about. Here in East Texas the weather is as unpredictable as the future. Due to late spring freezes,we had to replant our garden so it's a little behind than other gardens. The produce that we have been harvesting include Collard Greens, radishes, jalapeno peppers, and soon zucchini. Some of our friends who have gardens gave produce to us so we have a wide variety of fresh produce. Mr. Doc, a former Marine has given us red onions, garlic, and spinach which we are eating in soup for lunch today.  

Two of the main benefits I enjoyed of raising a garden include fresh produce and good picture opportunities... 

Life on the Farm

My flock of chickens.

 I'm so sorry that I have not blogged recently, and I hope to catch all you viewers up on what I've been doing. One of the activities that keeps me occupied the most would be taking care of all my animals.
Recently, raccoons have been raiding my cages to eat quail. My Dad and I set a trap for the raccoon and we caught him two nights later. After this incident I thought my problems were over. Three days ago six of my quail were dead.  For my poultry to be safe, I brought my quail, bantam and chicks inside our building. Again my Dad helped me set a trap. The next night, we caught the raccoon in the trap only after catching a cat. This morning when I went to feed the rabbits, their cage door was open. Upon further investigation I saw fur and blood on the ground. I also saw that one of the rabbits foot was hurt. Dad was trying to go to sleep, ( he was working night shift ) so I woke him up and told him about the problem. Two of the rabbits had to put them down so Dad handled them. I took the one that was the best and brought in to the building. Once again my Dad helped me set a trap for the culprit.

In other news our garden is doing good.The radish seeds have come up and we have our first green tomato. In our orchard we have small green peaches on the trees. Three of our cats had litters which you will see in the next post.

Quail

Rabbits

Ms. Fluffy Bunny is the oldest of the females.

Recently we bought four black Mini Rex rabbits to show in the upcoming HCLS show. We paid more for these rabbits because they came from a well known breeder. The rabbits we got are two males and two females. The male rabbit's pictures should soon be on my little brother's blog here.

My youngest bunny eating feed.

If your wanting raise to rabbits you will need a good cage to keep them in, food, water, feeder, waterer, a platform for them to get off the metal cage, and gloves to handle the rabbits with. If you get black rabbits, you will want to keep them away from the sun. If not, their fur won't stay dark black. Unlike the stereotype, lettuce and large amounts of carrots are not good for rabbits.

Rabbits top front teeth should be hanging over the bottom two teeth. Rabbits teeth are constantly growing so it's good to put a block of untreated wood or a pine cone in their pen for them to chew. Another important thing is to put a small piece of untreated wood or drywall in the rabbit pen so that the rabbits don't have sore feet.

If you have any questions about raising rabbits, please leave a comment on this post and I will try my best to answer it.
  

Rabbit scratches from not wearing gloves.

Cattle

For Christmas, I received a 4-D cow anatomy kit which I put together yesterday. I was really pleased with the finished product, but one of the pieces broke off and the instructions were very hard to read. What I did like about the model was that it explained the function of each piece and was highly detailed. The booklet had a few pages of information and then a mini test to take to see what you learned. 

For a quick farm update six of our cows calved. Four of the calves are bulls that will soon become steers (steers are male cattle that can't be fathers) and three are heifers. One of our oldest cows had twins this year, this is good because it made up for a calf that had died in later years. All of the calves are doing great and are eating solid food.

Did you know?

• 99% of all dairy farms in the United States are family owned and operated.
•    Cattle have the same amount of teeth a human has which is 32.
•    The average lifespan of a cow is 20 years.
•    Cows can detect smells from 5 miles away.
•    There are more than 800 breeds of cattle worldwide.

Agriculture Identification Contest

Yesterday, I participated in a Texas Agriculture Identification Contest at the Academic Rodeo in the East Texas State Fairgrounds. The  Academic Rodeo is where people from public, private, and homeschools all over East Texas come and participate in one or more of 14 different contests which includes the agriculture  identification contest, fashion show, writing and art contests, one act play, Lego mindset etc. At the AG ID contest you basically have to identify the product, answer if the product grows above or below ground. and what it classifies as. Today I found out how I placed. I placed 1st place over all the other middle school kids.


*picture taken from http://www.etstatefair.com