19 teachers schooled in agriculture at Summer Ag Institute

[July 09, 2012]  Nineteen teachers from a five-county area attended the Summer Ag Institute hosted by the Mason, Menard and Sangamon County Farm Bureaus, U of I Extension for Logan-Menard-Sangamon County, and the Sangamon-Menard Agricultural Education Partnership.

The teachers spent four days touring farms and agribusinesses and sitting down for classroom presentations on ways to integrate agricultural topics into their classroom curriculum. The teachers walked away at the end of the institute with a flash drive full of materials on everything from cows and poultry to soybeans and wheat.

The farm and agribusiness tours did much to educate the teachers about what is actually happening on farms. There were tours of the Jeff and Mary Beth Smith Farm at Easton, green bean harvest with Del Monte, Greenhaven Veterinary Clinic, Remington Seed, Gail's Pumpkin Patch, Applegate Farms, J.H. Hawes Antique Grain Elevator, Irwin Dairy, Gellerman Farm, Winkelmann Farm, Seaney Farms, Ramsey Grain and Ramsey Bees, and Randy and Toni Krone's Christmas Tree Farm.

[Text from file received from Amy Hyde, University of Illinois Extension]