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City kids spend a day learning about farm life
Kevin E. Brown
Smithville
Keayha Dillon, 16, a junior at Cleveland Central Catholic High School, walked into the 175-year-old barn on the Besancon Farm in Smithville and looked at dozens of bales of hay stacked to neatly form rows of semi-circle benches spanning the barn. Pointing at the bales of hay, she questioned with a laugh and huge smile, “We’re going to sit on that?”
DALE DONG
Keayha Dillon, an eleventh grader at Cleveland Catholic Central High School, says hello to the dairy cows at Besancon Dairy Farm.
Dillon was on one of about 20 Cleveland-area Catholic high school students who took the “rural plunge” in early July. The plunge was coordinated by the Catholic Commission of Wayne, Ashland and Medina in cooperation with Catholic Schools for Peace & Justice.
The half-day spent on the farm was designed to give the students from urban areas the chance to learn and experience what it is like to live and work on a farm, explained Notre Dame Sister Kathleen Ryan, director of the Commission on Catholic Community Action and diocesan liaison
to Catholic Schools for Peace and Justice. Cleveland Central Catholic, Trinity, and St Martin De Porres high schools were three of the 22 diocesan Catholic high schools participating in the event. There are plans in the works to bring students from other high schools within the diocese to the Besancon Farm in the fall during harvest.
“We want the (students) to get an appreciation for their food and where it comes from,” said Sister Ryan. “It takes a tremendous amount of work to get food on the table,” she said.
Dillon, who gladly took her seat on a bale of hay, picked up on this point as she listened to Brent Besancon, co-owner of the farm with his brother, Frank, talk to the group of students about what it takes to grow 700 acres of crops--including corn and wheat,--as well as manage the daily care of 350 cattle. “It takes a lot of hard work,” Dillon said. It was her first time on an actual farm and she admitted that she never really thought about the work involved.
Patrick O’Bryan, director of the Catholic Commission of Wayne, Ashland and Medina, who worked with Sister Ryan to plan the rural plunge, explained that the day’s activities were designed to create experiences on the farm for the students that introduced them to the concepts found in the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ pastoral reflection on food, farms and farm workers. He focused on key questions found in the Bishops’ document that address hunger, the right to food, sustainable food supplies, and dignified working conditions for farmers, he explained. “These are key questions for the students (to consider)” O’Bryan said.
The students’ workday on the farm included milking cows and unloading 30-pound bales of hay from a tractor into the barn. After unloading the hay, “I liked doing it,” said Anton Grady, 18, a senior at Cleveland Central Catholic High School. Grady, who had never been on a farm before. He said that he enjoyed the work, as well as all that he was learning during the day. “I might want to work on a farm someday,” Grady said. “I never thought about it before.”
After volunteering to unload the hay from the tractor, Cody Beyer, 15, a sophomore at Trinity High School in Garfield Heights, picked up on theme of the amount of hard work involved in farm life. Taking a brief rest after moving more than 20 bales of hay, Beyer said, “I think I’ve learned how to be a hard worker.”
The students also met with the veterinarian, Dr. Gabe Middleton, DVM, of the Orrville Veterinary Clinic. Middleton not only serves as the vet for the Besancon farm animals today--but he worked on the farm as a farmhand during his teen years. Middleton showed the students his medical equipment housed in a pick-up truck that serves as his mobile vet unit--including the dremel-like took he uses to grind down horses teeth. Horses teeth become jagged and can cut their tongues, he explained.
Middleton also had a very realistic and straightforward discussion with the students about what some may find the less appealing aspects of veterinary services. He showed them his full-arm-length plastic medical gloves used during examinations. These are the gloves he frequently uses to test if a cow is pregnant. This is an important and very real part of caring for cattle, Middleton explained.
When Besancon talked with the students sitting on the bales of hay in the old barn, he made the point that for milk production, “the cows being pregnant is the most important thing to our business.” One milking cow produces about 7 to 8 gallons of milk each day, Besancon said. He also explained that a milk co-op picks up the fresh milk for processing each day and added that only about 30 percent of the cost for a gallon of milk at the grocery store goes to the farm that produced it.
Besancon also talked about the amount of wheat needed to produce bread. “One of (our) fields produces about 24,000 loaves of bread,” he said. Besancon wanted the student to understand how much goes into the production of food, he stated.
“The students were impressed with the organization (of the farm) and the tremendous morning to night amount of work that needs to be done every day,” said Sister Ryan. The day taught the students what it takes to produce the wheat for a piece of bread or the work involved in producing a glass of fresh milk, she added.
“The students all want to be chosen to come back,” said Sister Ryan. She and O’Bryan are not only planning the harvest-time rural plunge, but they are talking with the Ohio Agricultural Research & Development Center in Wooster about bringing inner-city students to farms for internships, O’Bryan stated. Two representatives from the center also talked with the students during the plunge.
Other opportunities for Cleveland students may exist with this research center’s current Cleveland project, which is testing soil in the Hough area for planning of future urban community gardens, O’Bryan explained.
As for Dillon, who fully enjoyed her ‘rural plunge’ and said that she learned a lot--she also said that she would remember one other thing about her day on the farm: “The smell,” she said with a laugh.
Brown is a freelance writer.