SchooL Calendar Photos by Ken Kashian, Illinois Farm Bureau For more photos, go to ilfb.org and click on Ken Kashian s Photo Gallery

Transcription

1 SchooL Calendar Photos by Ken Kashian, Illinois Farm Bureau For more photos, go to ilfb.org and click on Ken Kashian s Photo Gallery

2 Beef (mid season)

3 Words and terms to learn: Cud, Diet, Stearic Acid, Steer, Ruminant, Tallow August 2010 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Beef is a good source of ZIP (Zinc, Iron & Protein). Leather can be used for footballs, basketballs, gloves, jackets and wallets. Cows can eat around 40 pounds of food each day. Zinc helps the body to form enzymes and insulin. Recommended Reading: From Cow to Shoe by Ali Mitgutsch Life on a Cattle Farm by Judy Wolfman Clover the Calf by Rebecca Anders Amazing Grazing by Cris Peterson Beef fat, called tallow, is an ingredient in soaps, cosmetics, candles, shortenings, and chewing gum Branding is one way farmers mark their cattle for easier recognition. Cattle scatter seeds, trim wild grasses, and aerate the soil with their hooves. A cow s diet is mainly grass and hay with some feed supplements. Ground beef, roast, sirloins, steaks, ribs, and chuck are cuts of beef that come from cows. Many medicines, including insulin, are made from the glands of the cow A calf weighs about 80 pounds at birth. It takes the hide of 3.8 steers to make 72 footballs. A cow has a ruminant stomach it s divided into four sections. The first cow in America arrived in Jamestown colony in Partially digested, regurgitated food is called cud Did you know that cows can see in color, just like us! We use 40% of the average steer for beef; the entire remaining steer is used for beef by-products. Each year, the average American eats 112 pounds of beef. Stearic acid, used to make automobile tires hold their shape, comes from cattle. Beef by-products help us to use 99% of every beef animal There are 1,470,000 cattle in Illinois. A 1,000 pound steer can produce 432 pounds of meat

4 Soybeans (mid season)

5 Words and terms to learn: Biodiesel, By-products, Environment, Legumes, Protein, Radical 29 September 2010 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Decatur, Illinois is the Soybean Capital of the World. Asian countries have been eating soybeans and using by-products from this plant for thousands of years. Recommended Reading: Why the Brown Bean Was Blue by Susan Pankey Awesome Agriculture Soybeans:an A-to-Z Book by Susan Anderson & JoAnne Buggey The Super Soybean by Raymond Bial Oh Say Can You Seed? By Bonnie Worth More than 80,000 newspapers in the United States use soy ink Biodiesel is good for our environment, because it burns cleaner than regular diesel. In the 1920 s, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg developed soy milk and meat substitutes from soybeans. The soybean is one of the most versatile seeds grown in the world. The soybean grows a little tail-like root called a radical. This becomes the plant s main root. Soybean plants are bushy green plants called legumes Many countries use soybeans as a protein source rather than meat, eggs, or cheese. Soybeans grow on bushy plants that are three to five feet tall. China uses more American grown soybeans than any other country. Soybeans are good for crop rotation because they leave nitrogen in the soil for the next crop. Soy is good for your heart and your whole body, too! Each soybean plant grows pods and each pod has three beans inside. In the fall, the soybean plant turns brown and the leaves drop off before they are harvested. Soybeans are made into fuel for buses and trucks. This is called biodiesel. Soybean oil is used to make pizza dough. A bushel of soybeans weighs about 60 pounds Henry Ford used soybeans for paint and plastic in his cars. Soybeans are used to make fortune cookies! George Washington Carver invented a process for making paints and stains from soybeans. Soy is very high in protein, which is the nutrient that repairs and builds new body tissue.

6 Pumpkins (late season)

7 Words and terms to learn: Circumference, Cross-pollination, Freckles, Pilgrims, Iron, Squash October 2010 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Recommended Reading: Pumpkins in Fall by David Bauer Our Pumpkin by Renee Keeler Pumpkin Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington Pumpkin Fiesta by Caryn Yacowitz Pumpkins are fruits, not vegetables! Illinois is the leading state in pumpkin production. Did you know that pumpkins were once recommended for removing freckles and curing snake bites? Giant pumpkins can grow 5 pounds a day. Pumpkins are 90% water. A single vine from a pumpkin plant can grow up to 20 feet long The length of the circle around the pumpkin is called the circumference. Pumpkin vines develop big orange blossoms about a month after planting. Morton, Illinois is known as the Pumpkin Capital of the World. Native Americans used pumpkin as a staple in their diets centuries before the Pilgrims landed. Cross-pollination can be used to create brand new varieties of pumpkins Insects, like bees and beetles, help to pollinate pumpkin plants. It takes 110 days for a pumpkin vine to produce mature pumpkins. Pumpkins are angiosperms, which is a fancy name for plants with flowers. Native Americans taught the Pilgrims how to grow pumpkins. Pumpkin seeds are also known as pepitas Pumpkins are harvested in the fall. Pumpkin seeds provide protein and iron, which make your body strong. A pumpkin is really a squash. It is a member of the Cucurbita family which includes squash and cucumbers! Pumpkins are used to make soups, pies and breads. Native Americans called pumpkins isqoutm squash.

8 Pecan Trees (late season)

9 Words and terms to learn: Loam, Zinc, Native, Grove, Commerce, Variable November 2010 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Pecan trees thrive in sandy soil or a sand and loam mixture. The pecan tree is officially the state tree of Texas. Pecans are high in nutritional value. In addition to being a good source of protein, they are also high in zinc. Some of the varieties of pecan trees include Stuart, Papershell, Mahans, Cheyenne, Sioux and more ---many of them named after tribes of Native Americans. Recommended Reading: The Edible Pyramid: Good Eating Every Day by Loreen Leedy Berries, Nuts and Seeds by Diane L. Burns Nuts by Catherine Chambers A Tree is Nice by Janice May Udry Pecan trees, Carya illinoinensis, grow in natural groves in bottom lands near rivers or lakes Thomas Jefferson planted pecan trees. Pecan trees are native to the United States and are found growing naturally nowhere else in the world. The shape of pecan nuts is highly variable; some are oval shaped and some are long and skinny. Pecan nuts were reported to contain higher antioxidants than any other nut. Pecans have a very high concentration of Vitamin A that protects teeth, eyes and bones, as well as benefiting general health The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends that citizens should eat 3 to 5 servings of nuts each day to maintain a healthy diet. Archeological remains and fossil evidence reveal that pecans were collected and stored by Native Americans. Pecans come in a variety of sizes mammoth, extra large, large, medium, small and midget. The U.S. produces about 80 percent of the world s pecan crop. Before a shelled pecan is ready to be sold, it must first be cleaned, sized, sterilized, cracked and finally, shelled Pecan trees usually range in height from 70 to 100 feet, but some trees grow as tall as 150 feet or higher. Native pecan trees those over 150 years old have trunks more than three feet in diameter. There are over 1,000 varieties of pecans. The name pecan is a Native American word of Algonquin origin that was used to describe all nuts requiring a stone to crack. The first U.S. pecan planting took place in Long Island, NY in In the 1700 s and the early 1800 s, the pecan became an item of commerce for the American colonists. Pecans are typically associated with Holiday Foods, including one of the most popular, is pecan pie!

10 Snowy Day - Jo Daviess County Dairy (late season)

11 Words and terms to learn: Export, Calcium, Gestation, Nutrients, Fahrenheit, Udder, Pasteurization, Refrigeration December 2010 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Milk is sometimes called nature s most nearly perfect food. The most common breed of dairy cow found in the U.S. is the Holstein. Recommended Reading: The Milk Makers by Gail Gibbons Extra Cheese, Please! Mozzarella s Journey from Cow to Pizza by Cris Peterson A Cow, a Bee, a Cookie, and Me by Meredith Hooper From Milk to Ice Cream by Ali Mitgutsch It takes 10 pounds of milk to make one pound of cheese Americans eat about 350 slices of pizza per second, or almost 3 billion pizzas (made with Mozzarella cheese) per year. It takes more than 21 pounds of whole milk to make one pound of butter. Louis Pasteur discovered the process called pasteurization; this process is used to protect the purity and flavors of milk. Milk remains fresh for 7-10 days after the expiration date if refrigerated at Fahrenheit. Your body needs calcium from milk for strong bones and teeth Canada, Japan and Mexico are the largest markets for U.S. dairy exports. A cow s udder can hold pounds of milk. Dairy cows drink 35 gallons of water a day the equivalent of a bathtub full of water. Illinois has about 103,000 dairy cows that produce more than two million pounds of milk a year. The average American consumes almost 25 gallons of milk a year; that s 400 glasses! Milk and milk products such as cheese, yogurt and ice cream contain calcium. The average cow produces 90 glasses of milk a day. Most dairy farmers milk their cows twice a day. Dairy cows begin to produce milk when they are two years old and after they have a calf. Male dairy cattle are called bulls and do not produce milk Many farmers use computers to keep track of how much milk dairy cows produce. Dairy cattle are called ruminants because they chew their cud. Dairy cows weigh about 1,400 pounds. Chocolate milk contains the same nine essential nutrients as white milk. Dairy products give us calcium plus nine other essential nutrients.

12 Twin Groves Wind Farm - McLean County Pork (early season)

13 Words and terms to learn: Farrowing, Piglet, Diabetes, Sow, Livestock, Species January 2011 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Recommended Reading: A Hog Ate My Homework by Gary Metivier Smart, Clean Pigs by Allan Fowler My Pigs by Heather Miller Pigs by Gail Gibbons As pigs grow, they can eat up to 9 pounds of feed per day. The average person will eat twenty 240 pound pigs in their lifetime. When grown, pigs drink up to 5 gallons of water each day. Hot dogs were first introduced to the public in 1904 at the St. Louis World s Fair. Most pigs are raised indoors to keep them safe from extreme weather conditions Insulin is made from pig s adrenal glands and helps people with diabetes lower their blood sugar. In the old days, sea captains kept pigs on board because they believed that pigs always swam toward the nearest shore. Mother pigs are called sows. Baby pigs are called piglets. Producer is another name for a farmer. When someone raises livestock they are usually called a producer. Pigs can t sweat, so farmers use sprinklers and fans to keep them cool There are more than 180 species of pigs, found on every continent except Antarctica. Pork is the Other White Meat because it is low-fat and nutritious. Hog manure is often spread on fields as fertilizer. Pigs will weigh about 250 pounds by the time they are four to six months old. In Denmark, there are twice as many pigs as people Iowa produces more pigs than any other state in the U.S. 31 Illinois pork producers raise 8.3 million pigs each year, creating 7,833 job opportunities for local workers. A pig that is beyond the feeder stage, being raised for sale, is called a finisher pig. Farrowing, in hog production, means giving birth. Pigs are very smart. They rank as the fourth most intelligent animal. The meat, fish and eggs group of the food guide pyramid includes pork!

14 Garden in the City - Cook County Wheat (early season)

15 Words and terms to learn: Acre, Consumption, Combine, Kernels, Harvest, Seed, Protein, Variety February 2011 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Wheat is used in bread, pasta, cereal, pretzels, and licorice. Wheat is grown in 42 states in the United States. A wheat plant grows to be 2 to 4 feet high. Recommended Reading: Grains by Jill Kalz The Hungry Farmer by Michelle Wagner Nechaev From Farm to You: Bread by Carol Jones Wheat by Elaine Landau Wheat is harvested, or taken out of the fields, by combines Spring wheat is planted in the spring and harvested in late summer or early fall. The head of a wheat plant is called a spike head. The rest of the wheat plant is called straw, which is bundled and used as animal bedding. The wheat from area farms is collected at grain elevators and then shipped to flour mills. A wheat head contains 50 to 75 kernels Wheat yields have improved by approximately one-half bushel per acre each year since Wheat is the principal U.S. cereal grain for export and domestic consumption. A modern combine can harvest 1,000 bushels of wheat per hour. A new variety of wheat can take as long as 17 years to develop before it is available for farmers to plant. Did you know that 12% of the world s wheat crop is produced in America? A kernel of wheat, sometimes called the wheat berry, is the seed from which the wheat plant grows. To harvest means to remove wheat kernels from the wheat plant. A bushel of wheat weighs about 60 pounds. Wheat contains a lot of protein, which is good for you. A combine cuts the wheat and then cleans and separates the kernels from the plant Soft red wheat is the type of wheat that is produced in Illinois.

16 Horse/Stallion (mid season)

17 Words and terms to learn: Paddock, Pony, Recreation, Breed, Gallop, Yearling March 2010 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday A large enclosure to hold a horse is called a paddock. Horses drink 10 to 12 gallons of fresh water every day. A Mustang is a wild horse of the Western plains. Recommended Reading: The Perfect Pony by Corinne Demas A Field Full of Horses by Peter Hansard War Horse by Michael Morpurgo Horses! By Gail Gibbons Horses have strong teeth, sharp ears, keen eyes and a good sense of smell There are more than 350 different breeds of horses and ponies. Professionals that trim horses hooves are called farriers. A hand is a unit used to measure the height of a horse. A hand equals 4 inches. The height of a horse is measured from the ground to their withers. The withers are the high point between a horse s shoulder blades. There are 219,000 horses in Illinois; most of them are used for show or recreation Tack is the name given to brushes, saddles and other equipment used to ride and care for horses. A group of horses is a called a herd. Horseback riding is proven to have therapeutic benefits to humans with physical and mental illnesses as well as provide assistance to people with disabilities. Gait is a term used to describe the way a horse moves. A yearling is a horse that is one year old The four natural gaits for the horse are the walk, trot, canter and gallop. Horses belong to a group called equine or equus. An average life span for a horse is around years, though they can live for up to 30 years. A thoroughbred horse can run a mile in about 1 1/2 minutes. The smallest breed of horse, the Falabella, grows to only 30 inches in height A foal is a newborn horse. A filly is the name for a young female horse. Horses in Illinois consume 500,000 tons of hay and grain each year.

18 Apple (early season)

19 Words and terms to learn: Antioxidants, Colonial, Volume, Pollination, Official, Pomology, Pilgrim, Orchard April 2011 Recommended Reading: From Seed to Apple by Anita Ganeri How Do Apples Grow? by Betsy Maestro The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall Apples to Oregon by Deborah Hopkinson & Nancy Carpenter Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday The GoldRush apple - a yellow sweet-tart variety - is Illinois official state fruit The science of apple growing is called pomology. About 2,500 varieties of apples are grown in the United States. Fresh apples float because 25% of their volume is air. Sunlight causes a chemical reaction in the sugar of apples. That s why they change colors. The crabapple tree is the only apple tree native to North America Apples are a member of the rose family. A medium sized apple has 5 grams of fiber, 20 percent of the recommended daily allowance. More than 7,500 varieties of apples are grown throughout the world. It takes about 36 apples to make one gallon of apple cider. October is National Apple Month It takes apple trees 4 to 5 years to produce their first fruit. Apple growers use half-amillion acres of U.S. land to produce apples. The top apple producing states are Washington, New York, Michigan, Pennsylvania and California. Apples contain five seed pockets. Usually, each pocket contains a seed. Tree leaves produce energy for fruit to grow. It takes more than fifty leaves to grow one apple In colonial times, apples were called winter bananas or melt-in-the-mouths. Apples are rich in pectin which is known to reduce cholesterol. Bees are needed for pollination of apples blossoms, so apple growers may place beehives in their orchards. Don t peel your apple. Two-thirds of the fiber and many antioxidants are found in the peel. Antioxidants help to reduce damage to cells. The apple was brought to North America by the Pilgrims in 1620.

20 Corn (early season)

21 Words and terms to learn: Starch, Ethanol, Biodegradable, Stalk, Gluten, Renewable, Kernel, Resource May 2011 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday An acre of corn will give off 4,000 gallons of water per day in evaporation. Most Illinois corn is field corn, not the type of corn you eat on the cob or with your dinner. Each corn kernel contains four major components: starch, protein, oil and fiber. One bushel of corn weighs 56 pounds. Recommended Reading: Anna s Corn by Barbara Santucci Four Seasons of Corn by Sally M. Hunter The Life and Times of Corn by Charles Micucci What Makes Popcorn Pop? by Jack Myers Processed corn is soaked and milled (ground) so that the germ oil, starch, gluten and hulls can be separated Gasoline is made from crude oil, which is made from plants that died millions of years ago, and is NOT a renewable resource! Ethanol is a high performance fuel that is made from corn and better for our environment. Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska and Minnesota produce more than half of the corn grown in the U.S. Sweet corn is sweet because the starch in the kernel turns into sugar. Scientists have made a road de-icer from corn Tassels, stalks, silks, husks, ears, leaves, roots and kernels are all part of a corn plant. One bushel of corn produces two and a half gallons of ethanol. Field corn is processed to make products we use every day. Ethanol is known as a renewable resource, gasoline is not. There are several varieties of corn. Some of the more common are sweet corn, field corn and popcorn One bushel of corn produces enough syrup to sweeten 324 cans of soda pop. The majority of corn grown in Illinois is field corn, used for ethanol production. Americans today consume 17.3 billion quarts of popped popcorn each year. Corn is grown in every state in the U.S. Some golf tees are made form corn products. They are biodegradable! Corn oil is used for cooking. It is low in cholesterol and saturated fat. Native Americans taught the settlers of Jamestown how to grow their own corn.

22 Blue Ribbons - Iroquois County Chickens (late season)

23 Words and terms to learn: Coop, Broilers, Poultry, Minerals, Predator, Yolk June 2011 Recommended Reading: Big Chickens by Leslie Helakoski Chicken Sunday by Patricia Polacco Jessie the Chicken by Margaret Sanfood Pursel Giggle, Giggle, Quack by Doreen Cronin Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Male chickens The yellow portion are called roosters. of the egg is called the yolk Chickens make sounds Only fertilized eggs with actual meaning. They give different alarm calls when threatened 13 Eggs also contain 14 by different predators. 15 The chicken can travel Eggs contain the highest essential vitamins and minerals Chickens are usually The house or cage in 29 which a chicken lives is called a coop. up to 9 miles per hour. July Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday will hatch. fed corn, wheat and soybean meal. known quality food protein Each year, a person will eat 5 6 Most eggs produced today 7 8 Laying hens sit on eggs 9 approximately 250 eggs. will be at the grocery store within 72 hours. for 21 days until they hatch There are seven distinctive Chickens need grit, which types of combs on chickens: rose, strawberry, single, cushion, buttercup, diet to produce eggs. 18 The most common poultry A hen requires 24 to Once chickens hatch, 23 in Illinois are chickens and turkeys. pea and V-shaped. is a mixture of angular, hard crushed rock, in their Baby chickens Chickens raised for their are called chicks. hours to produce an egg. meat are called broilers or fryers. they are put in a room called a brooder

24 Ag Mags are available on-line and in classroom sets of 30. Visit us on our website at Towanda Avenue Bloomington, IL Funds for this calendar were provided by The IAA Foundation. AG MaGS The Illinois Agriculture in the Classroom Ag Mags are four-page, colorful agricultural magazines for kids. They contain information about agriculture, classroom activities, agricultural career interviews and bright pictures. Ag Mags are available on-line and in classroom sets of 30. Contact your local County Farm Bureau to order some today! Apples Beef Corn Dairy Horse Horticulture Nutrition Pizza Pork Poultry Pumpkin Renewable Energy Soil Soybeans Specialty Crop Tree Water