Daily Pioneer News

PLATTEVILLE-Most recently at the Pioneer Farm, the University of Wisconsin Platteville teamed up with Tom Martin of CESA #3 to provide a quality program to get students excited about agriculture.

Students from Blackhawk, Cuba City, Iowa-Grant and Platteville high schools attended interactive sessions instructed by UWP faculty and staff as well as professionals in the field.

Assistant professor of agricultural education Rick Bockhop and Michelle Skaden demonstrated how to use global positioning systems (GPS), which are used to find coordinates. The students were then allowed to use the equipment to go on a scavenger hunt from one coordinate to the next.

Kevin Bernhardt, associate professor of agribusiness, and several students belonging to the National Agri-Marketing Association talked with students about marketing and advertising in agriculture.

Cory Weigel, the dairy enterprise manager at Pioneer Farm, demonstrated how to perform diagnostics tests on cattle. The students were then able to take cattles' heart rate, temperature, etc.

Chris Baxter, an assistant professor of agronomy, had students help him conduct a lab analysis on different types of soil.

The last session for students to choose from was an agriculture career bowl. The bowl was hosted by Shelly Mayer of the Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin. After lunch Mayer also spoke with all of the students about the many different jobs available in agriculture.

Before the students departed, they were able to take a tour of Pioneer Farm and have any questions answered about UWP, Pioneer Farm or agriculture in general.

"We were looking for a way to help high school agriculture programs," said Martin, school to work coordinator at CESA #3. "This is a great way to expose students to agriculture and to what UWP has to offer."

"We are very excited to be working with Tom Martin and CESA 3 to bring these young people to Pioneer Farm for some fun, hands-on workshops. These kind of events fit perfectly with the primary mission of Pioneer Farm - education," said Jodi McDermott, coordinator of recruitment, retention and marketing for the School of Agriculture.