Rock County farmer Peter Bakken visited fourth-grade students at Harvey Dunn Elementary in Sioux Falls Friday, Feb. 19, to show them what “cow food” is made of.
Bakken has been “adopted” by the students and has been sharing video messages with the class every month since school began last fall.
In his monthly videos he shows the students what cows eat, where they live and how they are cared for every day on BlacX Farms in western Rock County.
“It’s the little things every day that I don’t think about that give them the tangibility of a farm,” Bakken said about being an adopted farmer.
“It’s fun and easy — fun in that you get to see the response on the kids’ faces, and easy in the sense that you’re the expert so you don’t have to study. You’re just there to talk about what you do and promote transparency.”
This will be the second time the students will meet Bakken in person through the Adopt A Farmer program, which also addresses crop production.
During their in-person meeting Friday, Bakken showed the students “cow food” — samples of the feed he gives to his cows — and shared more information about his experiences on the farm.
Feb. 19 was also his birthday, and he said he was surprised to be greeted that day with hand-made cards from the students.
Bakken’s classroom visits were arranged by Ag United for South Dakota, a coalition of agriculture organizations of beef, corn, dairy, poultry, pork and soybean producers, in addition to Farm Bureau.
He also participated last year, and now has three classes of fourth-graders, including one at Harvey Dunn and two in the Garretson School District.
Bakken said one of his primary objectives in participating in the program was to connect with future consumers at a young age.
“Maybe as they graduate from high school and look back to their Adopt A Farmer days, they’ll know there are resources out there to find the facts in light of the negativity toward agriculture,” he said.
“We’re trying to communicate — at a fourth-grade level — the basic building blocks of taking care of our animals and taking care of our land.”
Bakken said he enjoys students’ reactions and questions, such as “Do the cows get cold outside?” and “Why does corn smell funny?”
He said he tries to keep the information basic, but he expands on that to talk about modern technology.
“They learn mechanization,” he said. “The fact that we use GPS in the manure truck, and the fact that we’re total containment — every drop of water that hits my farm has to be collected and accounted for.”
The videos, which were shot and edited last year by Michelle Rook, can be seen on YouTube under SD Adopt A Famer, searching Peter Bakken.