MACON FFA AG COMMUNICATIONS
February
Volume 2, Issue 4
Agri-News Monthly
Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day is a day
when everyone shows each other
that they love their family, friends,
and loved ones. Most people probably don’t know how Valentine’s
Day was started and who started it.
There should be some people that
we should be thinking about through
the holiday.
The holiday was named after two early Christian martyrs
named Valentine. They decided to
make it officially on February 15, it
was later moved to the 14th. In
1847, Esther Howland developed the
first successful Valentine’s Day card
business. The business was in Worchester, Massachusetts, in her home
where they were all hand made.
Inside this issue:
Troubles in Haiti
2
Cattle Problems
2
Conservation Arrest
3
Afghanistan Agriculture
4
Stopping New Pests
4
Clothing Drive
6
Big Bud 747
7
Special points of interest:
• Star Member: Joseph Lolli
• Blue Baby Syndrome
• Wells
• Jokes
• Upcoming Events
• Are You Smarter Than A
Farmer
• Tree Care After Storms
By: Nick Thrasher
National FFA Week
FFA Week is
coming up in February
starting on Saturday the
20th. To start off the week,
we are going to have a recreation day playing either
volleyball or dodge ball at
the school gymnasium.
Then Sunday we head to
church in official dress
following with eating lunch
afterwards. Monday we
By: Zach McElhaney
have a chance to try our
commodity, elk, and wear
our chapter colors, blue
and gold. Tuesday we are
wearing green in support of
greenhand degree recipients and that evening
greenhand and chapter degree ceremony will be
held. Wednesday, we get
up early to show our support for the businessmen by
serving breakfast. Thursday a speaker will come to
tell us more about our commodity, elk, and we wear
our chapter shirts. Then to
finish off the week we
wear gum boots and have
our annual animal and tractor day and that night is
our barnwarming dance
from 8-11 in the Career
Center Service Area.
Page 2
A g r i - N e w s
Troubles in Haiti
The earthquake that
struck Haiti, on January 12,
2010, killed as many as
100,000 people. It is estimated that the number could
reach 200,000 as the rubble is
continued to be cleared away.
As the survivors struggle to
find food, water, medicine,
and shelter, the dead seem to
cause some problems.
M o n t h l y
By: Shelby Dunseith
left on the roads are covered,
but the smell can not be hidden. People are covering their
faces trying to keep out the
smell.
The international
Red Cross and different
As the dead are uncovered they are being placed
on the roads and outside of
morgues. The bodies are lying all over the place. Some
are being rushed to the hills
for quick burials. The ones
health organizations are cautioning against rapid mass
burials or cremations. They
say that the dead are causing
no damage besides the smell.
The families need to be taken
into consideration when figuring out a way to take
care of the dead. It is hard
to find family members of
all those who have been
killed by the earthquake,
but they are still trying.
Star Member: Joseph Lolli
Fun Fact:
1 in 5,000 north
Atlantic lobsters are
bright blue.
Each month our team chooses a star member from our FFA chapter. This month
we have chosen Joseph Lolli as our star member. He is a junior and also serves as the
Chaplain in our chapter. He works at his family’s salebarn and raises and shows cattle.
Joseph also raises exotic animals. His future plans are to finish high school and attend
Mizzou , Northwest or Oklahoma State and wants to major in animal science for exotic
animals. He will continue to raise show cattle, exotics and also co-own the salebarn. His
favorite part about being in FFA is Animal and Tractor Day during FFA week.
Cattle Problems
Cattle can withstand
one winter storm, but this
year we have been having
multiple winter storms.
Whenever you are managing
cattle the most important
things to do are to keep them
fed, dry and comfortable during the winter. The winter
that we are having is very
hard on cattle production
because it is hard to keep the
By: Dalton Green
cattle comfortable during
weather that is below 0 and
snowing.
The reason that the
winter weather is bad for
cattle is because they fight so
hard to stay warm and they
lose a large amount of
weight. When it is time to
sell the cattle, they won’t
bring as much money because they lost so much
weight. It also puts a hurting
on the farmer’s wallet because when spring comes
around they have to feed the
cattle so much more to gain
back the weight that they lost
during the harsh winter.
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Page 3
Blue Baby Syndrome
If your child started
turning blue, you would want
to know all possible causes of
this event. According to the
Environmental Protection
Agency, the Maximum Contaminant Level of nitrate is
10 parts per million in the
United States’ drinking water. Methemoglobenmia also
known as “Blue-Baby Syndrome” is a potentially fatal
disorder in which the oxygen
carrying capacity of the blood
decreases. When nitrate levels rise at or above this level,
it has been known to cause
this disorder. An infant with
By: Nancy Jackson
moderate to mild cases may
be vomiting or be lethargic.
For those infants with serious
cases, the skin, lips, or nails
may develop a slate-gray or
bluish color and may cause
difficulty breathing for that
child.
A blood test can be
used to determine if the infant has blue-baby syndrome
or some other disorder.
Many causes can lead to excess nitrogen in water such as
poorly built wells, excess
fertilizer, and animal wastes
contaminating ground water.
If you think your water might
have high nitrate levels, you
should find alternative water
sources until you can have it
tested and reported.
Multiple Arrests for What Conservation Agents thought was a Routine Call
By: Cody Bisch
Conservation
Agents Dave Ingram and
Chris Ely had a so called
routine trespassing call one
day. They were prepared for
the usual trespassing complaint but they hit the jackpot.
They talked to the landowner
and he had complained about
some trespassers and led
them to a nearby deer camp.
At the camp they found an
untagged deer and other violations. These other violations include: trespassing,
failure to wear hunter orange,
hunting without a permit and
the untagged deer. After further investigation the Agents
found out that one of the suspects was a convicted felon
and he also had a concealed
firearm strapped to his ankle.
Crop Rotation May Help Our Footprint
A report was released that the climate change
is affecting the U.S. agriculture and land resources, water
resources and biodiversity.
The Effects of Climate
Change on U.S. Ecosystems
identifies many different
problems that will happen
over the next several decades.
Some effects on the crops are
that the grain and oilseed will
mature more rapidly, but the
increasing temperatures will
heighten the risk of crop failures. Do to the decrease in
precipitation, certain crops
such as tomatoes and onions,
As the Agents were
about to leave and the arrests
were made a friend of the two
suspects pulled up and was
subsequently arrested for
possession of marijuana. The
simple trespass case turned to
a good bust for the Agents.
This shows that conservation
agents do a great deal for us
hunters by keeping criminals
out of our woods.
By: Zach McElhaney
and fruit are more vulnerable
to climate change than grains
and oilseed crops due to high
sensitivity of their quality and
appearance to climate factors.
Fun Fact:
Elephants are the
only mammals that
can’t jump.
Page 4
A g r i - N e w s
M o n t h l y
U.S. Helps Stabilize Afghanistan through Agriculture
By: Melissa Wilson
Drug dealing has
become a big money maker
in Afghanistan. If the U.S.
can get the farmers away
from the drug money and into
the fields, it will boost confidence in their government.
Currently 80 percent of the
income is generated from
drug related agriculture. But
only half of the farmable land
is being used.
ates than opium. The U.S. is
hoping that the high prices of
exporting their crops will be
a big enough temptation to
get away from the drugs.
Farmers growing
poppies (an ingredient in
heroin) are only making
about $2,500 for every 2.47
acres. If they grow pomegranates they could make up
to $12,000 with the same
2.47 acres.
The hope is that the
drug farmers will be more
interested in growing crops
such as nuts and pomegran-
America Stops New Pests
Fun Fact:
The most money
ever paid for a cow
was $1.3 million.
Every year thousands of insects come into the
U.S. in packages and other
shipping material. While people find insects to be a nuisance, the Agriculture Research Service (ARS) scientists rely on these collections
to study insect species and to
By: Travis Noyes
find ways to protect U.S.
crops and people from them.
The ARS keeps all
the insects that they find at
the National Museum of
Natural History in Washington, D.C. in the National Entomological Collection. Here
they are able to study the
Tree Care After Storms
insects and provide information to anyone these insects
could effect. At the facility
they are even able to produce
different pesticides that
would help farmers save their
crops from all the different
pests that make their way to
the U.S.
By: Trever Cunningham
Taking care of trees
is very important after a winter storm occurs to our environment so that our wildlife’s
habitat is maintained well.
Snow falling on trees causes
them to get heavy and the
large trees that are weaker
will break. It is important to
make sure to clean up after a
tree falls down. Whenever a
tree has a limb break or gets
hung it needs to be taken care
of immediately. A lot of
times the ice will build up on
the tree limbs and bust the
limbs onto power lines. In
order to prevent this from
happening, you should keep
the tree branches away from
the power lines, along with
your house.
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Page 5
February 2010
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
1
2
3
4
5
6
Schedule of Events
1-Macon FFA Chapter Meeting
10-Greenhand Applications due
3:15
10-Chapter Applications due 3:15
12-State FFA Choir Application Due
16-Proficiency Awards Due
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
3:00
17-Area 3 Proficiency Selection
4:30
20-27-National FFA Week
20-Recreation Day
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21-FFA Sunday
22-Commodity Day (Blue & Gold)
22-Officer Meeting
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
23-Greenhand & Chapter Ceremony
5:30 p.m.
24-Businessman’s Breakfast 6:00a.m.
25-Guest Speaker
28
26-Animal & Tractor day
26-Barnwarming 8.00-11.00
Wells
There are many dangers about wells. The other
day I was below my house in
the woods setting some traps
and I knew there was a well.
It had been uncovered for as
long as I could remember. I
saw the well and there was
hair all around it so I looked
into it, and there was a dead
deer. It was very rotten, but
as I dug around on it and got
its head up to the top I realized it was an eight point
buck.
It made me realize
since a deer can fall into a
well, it is even more dangerous for humans if they don’t
know the land.
By: Nick Thrasher
If you go coon hunting in the
woods you need to watch out
for wells. The well that the
deer was in was only about
the size of the picture shown
here.
You can see that
there are wells all over the
world. In Africa where people get there water, the well
was big enough for an elephant to fit in. So if you have
a well on your land or on
someone else’s land that you
know of, please put a top
over them. You never know,
you could be the next thing in
the bottom of the well. Be
careful please.
Page 6
A g r i - N e w s
M o n t h l y
Jokes
1. What do you call an arctic cow?
An Eskimo!
2. What do you get if you cross a cow with a camel?
Lumpy milkshakes!
3. What do you call a pig with no clothes on?
Streaky bacon!
4. What did the farmer call the cow that would not give him any milk?
An udder failure!
5. Where do milkshakes come from?
Excited cows!
Fun Fact:
If you had enough
Dalton Green and Nancy
Jackson are counting some of
the food brought in for the
food drive.
water to fill one
million gold fish
bowls, then you can
fill a stadium.
Annual Clothing Drive
The FFA has done
it again. We held our annual clothing drive again
this year. The amount of
clothing was amazing. We
brought in over 1500 articles of clothing and other
items this year. All of
which is being donated to
the Better Living Center
By: Melissa Wilson
here in Macon.
Most of the agriculture classes chose to
participate this year, making the turn out even better. The top three classes
were Ms. Milligan’s third
hour, Mr. Womack’s third
hour, and Ms. Milligan’s
sixth hour. It was a very
close race.
We appreciate all
who helped out with this
clothing drive. I hope that
the support continues on
though the years. Thank
you all so much.
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Page 7
Are You Smarter Than A Farmer?
1. How much rain water does it take to produce a single pound
of food from the Earth?
2. How fast can field mice reproduce?
3. How much popcorn do Americans eat every year?
4. How much pizza do Americans eat daily?
5. What has more calories fruit juice or soda?
6. How fast can a mole dig?
7. How many different colors of carrots are there in the world?
8. What do you call a group of owls?
9. What was the first bird domesticated by man?
10. How many years does it take to make 1 inch of soil?
11. How many feathers does a mature turkey have?
12. How fast can a pig run?
13. How many eyes does a bee have?
Big Bud 747
By: Ben Morris
Fun Fact:
A lion’s roar can be
Big Bud is the
world’s biggest tractor. The
tractor was built in Haver,
Montana, in 1977 by Ron
Harmon. The tractor cost
around $300,000. Big Bud
was built to work on the
Rossi Bros Cotton Farms in
Bakerfield, California. Bud’s
main job was to pull ripper
ploughs to churn up fields to
a depth of four feet. His aver-
age rate is one acre every
minute. That’s about 8 mph.
Big Bud is a 16 cylinder behemoth which is
powered by a 24.1 liter Detroit v16 92Turbo engine
which is delivering 900hp.
The motor has potential of up
to 1100 horsepower. Bud has
hydraulic steering and air
brakes. He has a 1000 gallon
diesel tank with a 150 gallon
hydraulic reservoir tank. Big
Bud is 28 ½ feet long and 14
feet high and 21 feet wide
with a wheel base of 16 ½
feet. It weighs in at 45 tons
with full and hydraulic oil.
Bud was rebuilt toward the end of 1990. It is
now working in Montana,
where it pulls a huge 80 foot
plough. The Williams Brothers are the owner of Big Bud.
MU Cheerleaders performing at
the Mizzou Game on January 30,
2010 that the Macon FFA Chapter attended for members who
were high salesmen during fruit
sales
herd from 5 miles
away.
M a c o n
702 N. Missouri
Macon, MO 63552
F F A
A g
C o m m u n i c a t i o n s
Page 8
Phone: (660) 385-2158
E-mail: [email protected]
Production Staff
Cody Bisch—Team Leader
Nancy Jackson— Editor
Dalton Green—Reporter
Trever Cunningham—
Reporter
Zach McElhaney—
Reporter
Travis Noyes—Reporter
Ben Morris—Reporter
Shelby Dunseith—
Reporter
Melissa Wilson—Reporter
Jenny Milligan—Head
Honcho
The AG Communications class was a new addition to
the high school curriculum last year! This class is in
charge of producing the newsletter each month, informing FFA members and students in agriculture
classes of upcoming events, and updating
our newly established website. AG Communications
can also possibly be taken as an embedded English
credit, since graduation requirements are preventing
some students from taking classes they want to take.
Feel free to visit our website at
www.macon.k12.mo.us/FFA for
more information about FFA opportunities, events,
and officers!
WE’RE ON THE WEB
WWW.MACON.K12.MO.US/FFA
Are You Smarter Than A Farmer Answers
1. It takes 100 pounds of rain water
2. Two field mice can parent 15,000 mice in less than a year.
3. Americans today consume 17.3 billion quarts of popped popcorn each year.
4. Americans eat approximately 100 acres of pizza each day, or 350 slices per second.
5. Fruit juice
6. A mole can dig a tunnel 300 feet long in just one night.
7. There are 4 (Orange, Purple, Yellow, & White)
8. A parliament
9. The goose
10. About 500 years
11. 3,500 feathers
12. 7 miles a minute
13. 5 eyes