2018-2019 Grundy County Farm Bureau Agriculture in the Classroom Animal Agriculture Lesson Booklet For more information contact: Grundy County Farm Bureau Ann Collet, Ag Literacy Coordinator 4000 N. Division, Morris, IL 60450 815.942.6400 aitc@grundycfb.com www.grundycfb.com 1
ANIMAL AGRICULTURE WORDS TO KNOW Beard: A tuft of long, bristly, coarse hair attached to the breast of a male turkey. Breed: A specific type of animals having common characteristics, within a larger animal group. For example: Poodle is a breed of dog. Rhode Island Red is a breed of chicken. Broiler: Chickens, which are raised for meat and are ready for market in 6 to 8 weeks. Also called fryer. Candling: The process of inspecting eggs by holding them up in front of a bright light to judge the quality of the yolk and white. Carding: Combining the fibers of wool to untangle them. Crop: The pouch-like organ in a chicken where food is first softened after it is swallowed. Crossbred: Sometimes producers will combine more than one breed to obtain livestock with certain desired qualities from each of the breeds used. The resulting offspring are called crossbred. Docking: Removing the long rails from baby lambs. Domestic: Raised for human use or consumption. Drylot: An area where there are no plants to graze on. Feeder pigs: Young pigs weighing about 50 pounds, which are bought by a farmer who will continue to raise the ani mals to market weight. Finishers: Pigs that are being raised on a farm until they are ready for market. Fleece: The wool coat of a sheep. Gizzard: The muscular organ of a chicken, which contains grit and digests the food before passing it to the intestines. Graze: To eat grass and other plants in a pasture. Lanolin: The natural grease or oil contained in a sheep s wool. Mutton: Meat from older sheep, over one year of age. Omnivorous: Capable of eating both meat and vegetation. Pipping: The process a chick goes through to peck its way out of its egg. Pork: The meat produced from hogs. Pork Producer: A person who raises pigs. Poultry: Birds raised for their eggs or meat. Snood: A long, fleshy growth from the base of a turkey s beak that hangs down over the beak. Sodium: (Na) The substance commonly called salt in our foods. Like other fresh meat, fresh pork is naturally low in Na. A three-ounce serving has only 60 mg of Na. Swine: Another word for hogs or pigs. Wattle: A fold of reddish-pink on the throat and lower neck of a turkey. Zinc: (Zn) A mineral the body needs to form enzymes and insulin. Pork is and excellent source of Zn. 2
People and Animals Depend of Each Other Animals and humans have lived together since times. Wolves, the ancestor of today s, were one of the first animals to depend on man for and comfort. were also among the first animals to be domesticated, as early as in China. have also been domesticated for a long time. There are of turkeys in North America from millions of years ago. These wild animals grew to depend on humans for, and water. As the animals grew more tame, they also depended on man for protection from weather and predators. In return for food and safety, the animals provide man with many things, like,, and non-food products. Domesticated animals are called. 100 years ago, were grown mainly for their wool. Today, most sheep farmers and ranchers raise sheep for meat, called.turkeys were raised for their colorful, but today s turkeys are white so the colors from the feathers don t stain the meat. Hogs have changed as well. Before electricity, people used to light their homes. Candles and were often made from lard, the fat from a pig. Today s pigs are leaner and are raised for meat more than lard. 3
Livestock and Their Young Terms Barrow Boar Chick Cockerel Drove Ewe Farrow Flock Flock Flock Gilt Hen Hen Lamb Litter Piglet Poult Pullet Ram Rooster Sow Tom Wether 5 months 3 mo, 3 wks, 3 days 28 days 21 days For each box on the opposite page, write the Adult Male, Adult Female, and baby animal terms. You can also put the length of time it takes to have babies, and the term for a group of each animal. For an extra challenge, put the remaining words with their correct animal. Some terms are young males and some are young females for the animals. 4
Chickens Sheep Turkeys Swine 5
Facts about Swine Pigs are mammals. They have hair and feed their young milk. Swine are among the first animals domesticated, perhaps as early as 7,000BC in China. Pigs were brought to Florida in 1539 by Hernando DeSoto. He brought 13 animals. When he died 3 years later, the herd had grown to around 700. There were 2 types of hogs developed in the Middle Ages; a portly animal for lard, and a leaner animal for meat production. Many breeds were developed from the crossbreeding of these two types of animals. The lard from pigs was used for cooking, candles and soaps. Vegetable oils have replaced lard for food use in many cases. Due to the consumer demand for leaner meat, farmers responded by breeding a leaner pig. These animals also grow faster, using less feed and resources, so pork costs less today because it is more efficient to produce. Most hogs reach market weight of around 260 pounds in about 6 months. United States pig farms produce over 22 billion pounds of pork each year. Pigs are very smart, they are smarter than horses, cows or elephants. Pigs cannot sweat. They are actually very clean, and wallow in water or mud to stay cool in hot weather. Piglets weigh about 3 pounds at birth, and are born in litters of 8 to 11 piglets. A sow can give birth twice a year. Piglets tails and eyeteeth are clipped when they are three days old to protect them from diseases and each other. The popular breeds of pigs today include: Berkshire, Chester White, Duroc, Hamshire,Landrace, Poland China, Spotted, and Yorkshire. They range in color from black to white to red, and can have spots, belts, or boots of color. There are over 55,000 pig farms in the United States Pig farmers have become more efficient. 40 years ago, it took 8 pigs to produce 1,000 pounds of pork. Today it takes just 5 pigs. This is due to better genetics, better nutrition, better disease controls, and better barns. Pig farming supports over 800,000 jobs nationwide, all jobs that somehow relate to pigs. Pigs have many other uses in addition to pork. They are used in medicine and products around the school and around the home. 6
Facts about Chickens Birds that are raised for their meat or eggs are called poultry. All birds digest their food in a similar way. They have no teeth, so swallowed food goes to the crop, where food is softened and stored temporarily. From the crop, the food goes to the gizzard, a muscular sac that often contains grit or small rocks to help grind up the birds food. The poultry industry uses an amount of corn each year that is equal to the total bushels produced in Illinois. All poultry lay eggs. Size and color vary. The poultry industry produces more pounds of food for humans per amount of feed used, than any other animal livestock industry. Most hens begin laying eggs around 5 to 6 months of age. A hen can lay between 250 and 300 eggs per year. The record is almost one egg a day for a year. Hens establish a pecking order, with the boss hen at the top. This determines who gets to eat first, who gets to choose where to roost or sleep, and who has to wait their turn. Eggs are usually processed right at the farm. They are cleaned, then graded by size, and then inspected. They are then packed into cartons and refrigerated until they can be transported to market in refrigerated trucks. Stores and people in Europe do not refrigerate their eggs. Meat birds are ready for market in 6 to 8 weeks. The eggs are incubated at the farm, then hatched and raised there. Eggs contain a high amount of quality protein. They also contain 13 essential vitamins and minerals, and egg yolks are one of the few foods that naturally contain Vitamin D. There are many different breeds of chickens. The color of their ear lobes can help you discover the color of the egg they will lay. Many heritage breeds are becoming popular again due to backyard farming. Chickens are allowed in some cities, as long as the city ordinances are followed. 7
Facts about Turkeys Wild turkeys are native to the Americas. Turkeys were brought to Europe by explorers like Christopher Columbus and Hernando Cortez. Wild turkeys are very colorful, but the colors of the feathers can show up in the meat. Because of this, turkey growers raise white birds, whose feathers won t stain the meat. Turkeys have snoods, wattles and beards. The snood is the long, red fleshy growth from the base of the beaks that hangs down over the beak. The wattle is a fold of reddishpink skin on their throat and lower neck. Male turkeys have beards, a tut of long, bristly, black, coarse hair attached to their breast. Only tom turkeys gobble. The hens make a clicking noise. There are around 2,000 full time turkey farmers in the United States, as well as around 5,000 small turkey farms. Turkey farmers in Illinois have large farms in DeKalb and Livingston counties. A typical turkey producer can raise and market 50,000 birds per year. Facts about Sheep Before the development of manmade fibers, sheep were raised for their wool. Today, lamb is the primary product from sheep. Sheep are raised in all 50 states. The highest sheep-producing states are west of the Mississippi River, where they have large ranches for grazing. There are many breeds of sheep. Popular breeds in the US include: Dorset, Hampshire, and Suffolk. Each breed has been developed to suit a particular climate or land, or for its characteristics like meat or wool production. Some sheep farmers or ranchers use sheep dogs to help herd and protect their sheep. Sheep spend a lot of time grazing, eating grass and other plants in a pasture or rangeland. Wool, the protective coat or fleece from domestic sheep, is usually yellow or off-white, but can be gray, brown, black or fawn. Wool is naturally flame resistant, meaning that it will not easily catch on fire. Wool is also a good insulator, and sheds water. Sheep are sheared in the spring. One fleece weighs 8.5 pounds and contains enough wool for a whole suit. A baseball contains 150 yards of tightly wound wool yarn. 8
Other Products from Animals We think of meat and eggs when we think of pigs, sheep and poultry. Did you know that there are many other products made from these animals? 9
The Chicago Union Stockyards, by the Numbers 1864: 9 Railroads bought 375 acres to form the Union Stockyards. In 1879, the Union Stockyard Gate was built, and it remains there today as a National Historic Monument to the Union Stockyards. By 1870, 2 million animals /year were processed in the plants around The Yards. The Yards contained 2300 separate livestock pens. These pens held: 75,000 hogs, 21,000 cattle, and 22,000 sheep at any one time. Gustavus Swift invented a practical refrigerated railcar for meat transport in the 1870 s. Between 1865 and 1900, approximately 400 million livestock were butchered in plants surrounding the Union Stockyards. By 1900, there were over 10 million animals per year processed at the Union Stockyards. By 1900, the Stockyards employed 25,000 people. By 1900, the Stockyards produced 82% of the meat produced in the nation. By 1900, the stockyards had expanded to include 475 acres of land. In 1900, the Chicago River flow was reversed to direct the flow of waste from the stockyards away from Lake Michigan. By 1900, There were 50 miles of roads in the Stockyards. By 1900, there were 130 miles of railroad track around the perimeter of the Stockyards. Between 1890 and 1930, 1 out of every 4 workers in Chicago were employed by the Stockyards or related industries. Henry Ford got ideas for his assembly line from the processing plants near the Union Stockyards. The Stockyards and the Railroads that built them were developed to take advantage of the I and M Canal, completed in 1848. In 1906, Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle, a book about the Chicago meat packing industry. It brought about many changes to the safety of our food processing system. By 1953, over 90% of animals arrived by truck. The Union Stockyards closed in 1971. In 1914, Carl Sandburg wrote his famous poem, Chicago, declaring Chicago the hog butcher to the world. 10
Cuts of Pork Do you know where your favorite sort of pork comes from? Do you like pork chops? Bacon? Ham? Ribs? Look at the diagram above, and the poster to find your favorite sort of pork. Write your favorite, and where it is from on a hog, below: I like best and it is from the part of a hog. 11
A Map of a Different Sort What part of the chicken is your favorite? Do you like drumsticks? Breast meat? Thighs? Wings? Have you ever had chicken soup with broth from the neck bones? What is your favorite piece of chicken? 12
A Map of a Different Sort Have you ever tried lamb? It is a very healthy meat that has been growing in popularity in recent years. Lamb not only has the protein of beef, but also contains Vitamin B12, Selenium, Vitamin B3, Zinc, Phosphorus and Iron. It is also a good source of Omega-3s and healthy fats like CLA and oleic acid. 13
Addition: Instructions: Using the code below each set of problems, figure out the piggy answers to these math problems. Subtraction: 14
Word List candles dogs eggs feathers food fossils hogs lamb livestock meat milk prehistoric sheep shelter soap turkeys warmth 7000 BC CHICAGO HOG Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler; Stormy, husky, brawling, City of the Big Shoulders: They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys. And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again. And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger. And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them: Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning. Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities; Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness, Bareheaded, Shoveling, Wrecking, Planning, Building, breaking, rebuilding, Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth, Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs, Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle, Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse. and under his ribs the heart of the people, Laughing! Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation. By Carl Sandburg 15