KYLA Learns About Agri-Business at Chore-Time Brock
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Staff Report-
The theme for the session was “Agri-business in Kosciusko County”. Rick VanPuffelen from Chore-Time welcomed the KYLA students and board members, and then presented information about agriculture from the perspective of a manufacturing company.
VanPuffelen’s presentation included pictures of CTB products, including chicken and hog houses, feeder systems and grain bins. VanPuffelen stressed the importance of efficiency and how CTB’s equipment helps farmers to be much more productive. This is important because there is less land for agricultural purposes per person to produce the food needed, so production efficiency is crucial to the food supply.
Next, Kent Kleeman of Midwest Poultry, headquartered in Mentone, showed a video about how the eggs bought at the grocery store get from the poultry farms to the grocery stores. The students learned about the chicken-laying houses, egg nutritional information and the processing, packaging and shipping of eggs. Kleeman stressed the importance of how automation has improved the efficiency of the egg handling process.
Janelle Deatsman, the communication manager from Maple Leaf Farms, gave a brief history of Maple Leaf and shared how important vertical integration has been to their company in helping them become a leader in the duck industry. Deatsman explained that vertical integration is when a company owns various steps of the production process, which makes the company more efficient and cost effective. Some of the divisions included in Maple Leaf Farm are the hatcheries, the grower farms, feed mill and labs, food processing plants and feather operations. Samples were available for anyone wanting to taste duck.
During an interactive learning game, Kelly Heckaman, Purdue Extension educator, communicated to the students how important agriculture in Kosciusko County is both economically and for food production.
The students matched an answer card with a question card and learned various county facts such as the average farm size, the number of farms and the percentage of income that goes toward food. Because the United States has an abundant supply of food, Americans use a very low percent of their income on food. This allows people living in the United States to be able to live a much more leisure life than the majority of the rest of the world.
Heckaman stressed the importance of having efficient food production using technology and the importance of keeping food production inside the country for food safety reasons.
The students learned that agriculture is an area where engineers, scientist, managers and planners are needed along with an abundance of technology.
KYLA moderator Tony Ciriello concluded the session by encouraging the class members to have an idea for their community service project by the next meeting Dec. 7.
The location of the December meeting will be at the Kosciusko Wellness Center and will focus on the orthopedic and health care industry in Kosciusko County.[[In-content Ad]]
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The theme for the session was “Agri-business in Kosciusko County”. Rick VanPuffelen from Chore-Time welcomed the KYLA students and board members, and then presented information about agriculture from the perspective of a manufacturing company.
VanPuffelen’s presentation included pictures of CTB products, including chicken and hog houses, feeder systems and grain bins. VanPuffelen stressed the importance of efficiency and how CTB’s equipment helps farmers to be much more productive. This is important because there is less land for agricultural purposes per person to produce the food needed, so production efficiency is crucial to the food supply.
Next, Kent Kleeman of Midwest Poultry, headquartered in Mentone, showed a video about how the eggs bought at the grocery store get from the poultry farms to the grocery stores. The students learned about the chicken-laying houses, egg nutritional information and the processing, packaging and shipping of eggs. Kleeman stressed the importance of how automation has improved the efficiency of the egg handling process.
Janelle Deatsman, the communication manager from Maple Leaf Farms, gave a brief history of Maple Leaf and shared how important vertical integration has been to their company in helping them become a leader in the duck industry. Deatsman explained that vertical integration is when a company owns various steps of the production process, which makes the company more efficient and cost effective. Some of the divisions included in Maple Leaf Farm are the hatcheries, the grower farms, feed mill and labs, food processing plants and feather operations. Samples were available for anyone wanting to taste duck.
During an interactive learning game, Kelly Heckaman, Purdue Extension educator, communicated to the students how important agriculture in Kosciusko County is both economically and for food production.
The students matched an answer card with a question card and learned various county facts such as the average farm size, the number of farms and the percentage of income that goes toward food. Because the United States has an abundant supply of food, Americans use a very low percent of their income on food. This allows people living in the United States to be able to live a much more leisure life than the majority of the rest of the world.
Heckaman stressed the importance of having efficient food production using technology and the importance of keeping food production inside the country for food safety reasons.
The students learned that agriculture is an area where engineers, scientist, managers and planners are needed along with an abundance of technology.
KYLA moderator Tony Ciriello concluded the session by encouraging the class members to have an idea for their community service project by the next meeting Dec. 7.
The location of the December meeting will be at the Kosciusko Wellness Center and will focus on the orthopedic and health care industry in Kosciusko County.[[In-content Ad]]
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