Agriculture Education

Having been an agriculture science and technology teacher, I was most impressed with this program. The school owns a 20 acre farm that includes cattle, lemons, sorghum, and mango trees. There are a few schools in Oregon that operate a farm which is called a land lab. Students get a 2 hour block to work at the school farm (parcella). The cattle are cross bred between beef and dairy breeds in order to have duel purpose animals (Meat and Milk). I took this photo of a Holstein and Brahman cross. She was one big cow and their best milk producer. They also had crosses of Brown Swiss and Shorthorn. The Brahman breed is from India and known for being hardy in very hot weather. It is not uncommon to have temperatures in the hundreds during the summer. I couldn’t resist taking a photo of the calves born over Christmas time.

The parcella raises sorghum to feed the nearly 20 head of cattle. The milk goes to the school for the candy making class and the surplus milk and beef is sold in town to fund the parcella. The lemons and mangoes go first to the school’s lunch program with the surplus being sold as well for the operation of the parcella.