Colorado Reader. What is Agriculture? Food, Fiber and Natural Resource Literacy Colorado Foundation for Agriculture -

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1 Colorado Reader AG in the Classroom - Helping the Next Generation Understand Their Connection to Agriculture Food, Fiber and Natural Resource Literacy Colorado Foundation for Agriculture - What is Agriculture? Agriculture is the business, science and practices of growing and selling plants and animals to be used for food, fiber, fuel and much more. Can you live a day without agriculture? Photo by Travis Harvey Colorado Ag in the Classroom 1

2 Agriculture is Everywhere When you woke up this morning, you had your first encounter with agriculture. Your sheets and pajamas were probably made with the fibers from cotton plants. Did you wash or shower with soap? That soap is made from fat from cattle and oil from plants such as palm, corn and soybean. Did you eat cereal, eggs, milk, bacon, pancakes, buttered toast or juice for breakfast? Thank agriculture for providing this food. Did you pack a lunch in a paper bag, or finish your math by writing on paper? That paper comes from another agricultural crop -- trees. Corn and soybeans may also be used to make that paper and the ink. Did you ride to school today? The bus or car likely ran on biofuel made from soybeans or corn. The metal used in the car, bus, or bike was also manufactured using tallow to move the hot steel around. Tallow is the fat from cattle. Agriculture is FOOD that comes from plants and animals. FIBER, the raw material from plants and animals that we use to make cloth, clothing, rope and more. Fiber can be made from cotton, wood, wool and even corn. FUEL made from crops like corn, soybeans and sugarcane. Fuels made from plants grown on farms are called BIOFUELS. FORESTRY that grows trees to be made into lumber to build homes and businesses. Or it can be made into a variety of paper products. PHARMACEUTICALS, which is a big word for medicines. Many medicines are made from products we get from plants and animals. FLOWERS, turf grasses, shrubs and trees that make our landscapes beautiful. On a sheet of paper write down all the things you can think of that we get from agriculture. Who came up with the largest number of items? Can you live a day without agriculture? There is just no way to live without agriculture. Colorado Ag in the Classroom 2

3 A Tale of Two Kingdoms Plants Plants are important because they can make their own food. They are also the source of food for other living things. We eat plants - roots, leaves, stems, flowers and fruits. The animals we eat also eat plants! Plants become our medicines, clothing, paper products, spices and building materials. We use plants for fuel too. That incudes biofuels and wood, as well as the fossil fuels (coal, petroleum, natural gas) that came from plants that lived a long time ago. We also depend on plants for the oxygen we breathe. Without plants we could not survive. Animals Only about 1/5 of the land in the United States is suitable for growing crops. The rest has poor soil, receives too little rainfall, or is too rough or rocky for farm machines to cross. Livestock can often graze these areas. Animals, such as cattle, can also eat leftover products from making ethanol, cereals and sweeteners. They recycle these materials by turning these leftovers into eggs, milk and meat that give us protein. Animals also produce the wool and leather we use for clothes, shoes, baseball gloves and the baseball. Animal fats are used to make soaps, cosmetics, paints and much more. Thanks to animals we have better lives. Quick Facts About Colorado Agriculture There are 34,000 farms in the state encompassing 31.7 million acres. Sales Colorado s farm products in 2015 totaled $7.4 billion. Livestock products were 71% of this amount. Agriculture continues to be a vital part of Colorado s future, providing more than 170,000 jobs and contributing more than $40 billion to the state s economy each year. Colorado farmers and ranchers help to feed the world. Colorado exports $1.8 billion in agricultural products. Canada, Mexico,Japan, Korea and China receive the largest share of Colorado food products. Today Colorado farmers grow everything from apples to zucchini including grapes, sunflowers, mushrooms, Anasazi beans and fish (aquaculture), bison, elk and much more. Colorado Ag in the Classroom 3

4 Animals raised in Colorado Cattle is the largest segment of Colorado agriculture. 12,000 cattle producers sell more than 4 billion dollars of cattle each year. Colorado cattle graze on millions of acres of land that is too dry and too rough to raise crops. There are two types of cattle in Colorado. Beef cattle are raised for meat and have muscular bodies. Larger, thinner dairy cattle produce milk. Chickens are raised for meat and eggs. Laying hens are female chickens bred and raised for laying eggs. A hen can lay an egg every 24 to 26 hours or five to six eggs per week. Colorado hens lay more than a billion eggs a year. Chickens bred and raised for meat are called broilers. In Colorado, there are dairy cows on 120 dairy farms. These cows produce over three and half billion pounds of milk each year. Only female cattle, called cows, produce milk. Milk from dairy cows is made into products like cheese, yogurt, ice cream and butter. While dairy cattle are used for beef too, producing milk is their main purpose. Most sheep are raised for their meat which is called lamb. Colorado ranks as one of the top five states producing lamb year after year. Sheep also produce fiber called wool. Because Colorado has excellent supplies of corn and hay, it is a good place for feeding sheep in feedlots. Pork Pigs are sometimes called hogs or swine. The meat from pigs is called pork. Most pigs are raised in barns. This protects them from predators and bad weather. Colorado Ag in the Classroom 4

5 More than a million acres of corn are grown in Colorado. Corn is fed to livestock, made into ethanol and used to make foods like cereal, corn chips and corn bread. This corn is different from sweet corn we buy at the store. This corn is called field corn or dent corn. This corn is used to make biodegradable plastic, packing peanuts and carpet. There are over 4,200 uses for this corn and more uses are being discovered every day. Colorado produces some of the nation s sweetest, juiciest fruit and crisp, flavorful vegetables. From Rocky Ford melons to west slope peaches, Colorado grows a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. Colorado growers sell nearly $670 million in fruits and vegetables each year. Plants raised in Colorado Colorado s San Luis Valley in the south central part of the state has a rich history of potato farming. Colorado is third in the nation for shipping fresh potatoes. Colorado produces more than 2 billion pounds of potatoes each year. With all those cattle living in Colorado, hay is an essential agricultural crop, providing food, bedding and seed. Hay is the basic ingredient in livestock feed. Nearly one and a half million acres across Colorado s mountain meadows and fertile plains produce hay including alfalfa, grass and various mixes. Wheat is a grain, a plant that produces a dry edible seed. Most wheat is made into food for people, like bread, pasta and cereal. Stems of wheat plants, called straw, are baled and used for livestock bedding or to grow mushrooms. More than two million acres of wheat are planted and harvested in Colorado. Colorado s nurseries and greenhouses contribute more than $1.8 billion to the state s economy. Greenhouses and nurseries provide seeds, plants and other resources to make our landscapes beautiful. Colorado Ag in the Classroom 5

6 Colorado Agriculture is Diverse Top 10 Ag Counties in Colorado Value of Agriculture Products Sold 1. Weld $1.9 billion Cattle, dairy, nursery, poultry, wheat, corn, sheep, hay, vegetables 2. Yuma $1.2 billion Cattle, corn, wheat, hogs 3. Morgan $615.3 million Cattle, wheat, corn, hay 4. Logan $566.9 million Cattle, wheat, corn, hay, proso millet 5. Kit Carson $499.8 million Cattle, wheat, corn 6. Prowers $318.2 million Cattle, wheat, hay, corn, sorghum 7. Washington $220.7 million Wheat, proso millet, corn, cattle 8. Phillips $208.0 million Corn, wheat, proso millet 9. Crowley $161.5 million Cattle 10. Otero $144.2 million Cattle, hay, corn, vegetables Colorado is the largest producer of Proso Millet in the United States. Add in the sunflower seeds we raise, it makes Colorado the largest producer of bird seed. 1st Each year, Colorado produces fresh, high quality products for millions of Colorado residents as well as consumers nationally and internationally. Here are just a few items grown and raised in Colorado: Alfalfa Hay Alligators Apples Apricots Barley Beans Beef Bison Broccoli Broilers Cabbage Canola Cantaloupe Carrots Cashmere Cattle Cauliflower Cherries Chickens Chili Peppers Christmas Trees Corn Cucumbers Eggs Elk Emus What does the word diverse mean? Write a sentence that uses the word diverse and shows its meaning. Fish Flowers Garlic Goats Grapes Grass Hay Herbs Hogs Honey Horses Ice Cream Kale Lambs Lettuce Milk Millet Milo Mushrooms Nectarines Oats Okra Onions Ostriches Peaches Pears Peppers Pinto Beans Plums Potatoes Pumpkins Quinoa Radishes Rhubarb Seeds Sheep Sod Sorghum Spinach Squash Sugar Beets Sunflowers Tomatoes Turkeys Watermelons Wheat Wool Xeriscape Plants Yaks Yogurt Zucchini Colorado Ag in the Classroom 6

7 REVIEW Solve the crossword puzzle ACROSS 1. Fuel made from crops 3. We get meat, leather and other products from these 4. Raw material from plant or animals used to make cloth, rope and more 8. There are over 4,200 uses for this crop 9. Big word for medicine 10. Science of growing trees DOWN 2. Meat from sheep 3. The business, science and practices for growing and selling plants and animals 5. Chickens raised for meat 6. The meat from hogs 7. A grain used to make pasta and bread. Stems are used to make straw. 9. Make their own food and are a source of food for animals P Z A A N R B K I G Q P E V R N U Q Z H H C F P U K D C F D P I I C F W V O P M Z Y I F N I O Y M J J Y P E I Q A Z S L F D I A B E A N S X S K P D X D A W L B F I C E C D W V J A Y H X J P E K W Q C H B B M S R O U O T L Z P N F W Z O I U I H H E S A Y L M Z R N O D I R T B N S T R J N N E A A G R G N E O N M J F I G Q C M A O E A N S T B E F W O H N O A Q E C W X D I T P S D Y Y A P X R M O L L I T U H O A O Z N O Q S J E C S X C B N N Z I D O V F T J N H K E G H N C A N T A L O U P E T E A H S V I I H S Q O J P V N N J B N U C P W S I Y O T O M Z C H I E C O M E B E S S N G J S S K D G N U S X X K E S C S Y E Z N H C A R R O T S B S S Q X Z B I L R S T V K V E R P E P Q H D K H H U U U B O E S O B N H W E S W U C Y N N R I R A Z H O B N P K Z X T W P O X C X B B O L K O S L W M E G E M J L V O L Z K I C W F O L D O H U U K E H P Q Z C L F F P B X A M C I L S M H C C M F R P U U A N E L Q Q B N C M T E I S U I B A R L E Y I U G G O A T S O O V J R P C H L M J A T R E S D B G A J P R L D B M V M C I I X Z I D S D A Y L S F H B U A S H B C K Page 6 lists different crops grown in Colorado. See if you can find the blue words in the word search and circle them. There are 32, can you find them all? Can you identify these crops? Write their name on the line pointing to them. Colorado Ag in the Classroom 7

8 Farmer s Share of Your Food Dollar Did you know that farmers and ranchers receive only 15.6 cents of every food dollar that consumers spend? According to the USDA, off farm costs including marketing, processing, wholesaling, distribution and retailing account for more than 80 cents of every food dollar spent in the United States. Figures are based on national prices. Source is National Farmer Union and is updated monthly: cereal 18 oz box retail $4.79 farmer $0.055 potato chips 8 oz bag retail $3.29 farmer $0.175 fresh carrots 5 pounds retail $3.99 farmer $1.395 eggs dozen retail $1.39 farmer $0.765 sirloin steak 1 pound retail $8.99 farmer $2.065 flour 5 pounds retail $6.29 farmer $0.355 ham 1 pound retail $3.99 farmer $0.665 bread 2 lb loaf retail $2.99 farmer $0.105 milk 1 gallon retail $4.49 farmer $1.42 lettuce 1 pound retail $2.79 farmer $0.835 fresh potatoes 5 pounds retail $3.99 farmer $0.42 tomatoes 1 pound retail $3.49 farmer $ How much does it cost to buy 10 pounds of potatoes? How much does the farmer receive for those potatoes? 2. How much does it cost to buy 3 loaves of bread? How much does the farmer receive for the bread? 3. How much does it cost to buy 4 boxes of cereal? How much does the farmer receive for the grain in the cereal? 4. How much does it cost to buy 2 pounds of steak? How much does the farmer receive for the meat? Homework: Study your family s last grocery bill. Add up only the food items on that bill. Multiply that amount by 15.6% to see what the farmers share would be. The Colorado Reader publication and Ag in the Classroom are projects of the Colorado Foundation for Agriculture. Educational projects are produced in cooperation with the Colorado Department of Agriculture, other state and federal agencies, Colorado commodity groups, Colorado agricultural associations, state universities and colleges and interested individuals. Colorado Readers are provided free to educators requesting them. For more information contact: Bette Blinde, Colorado Foundation for Agriculture, P.O. Box 10, Livermore, CO or phone Financial support for this reader has been provided by: Colorado Farm Bureau, Colorado Department of Agriculture, Larimer County Farm Bureau, Colorado CattleWomen, and Rocky Mountain Farmers Union. Colorado Ag in the Classroom 8