Ag classes keep busy with projects
by Mary Warner and Alexis Smith
January 26, 2012
Ag classes
This year’s Advanced Ag Mechanics class has completed eight round bale hay feeders which were sold to customers in the Melvern area. One feeder takes approximately two class periods to make. Students in the class also plan to make one rectangular hay feeder that holds two round bales of hay, if someone is interested in purchasing it.
In addition, Matt Boggs is building a yard bench, and Dakota Meiers, with the assistance David Rager and others, welded a cage to hold the chukar game birds for the Wildlife Management class.
Members of the Advanced Ag Mechanics class also built a cover for the old concrete cistern located on the south side of the school. “It’s going to be heavy to move,” commented Adrian Morgan.
On January 28 senior Adrian Morgan plans to compete for a welding scholarship at the Missouri Welding Institute in Nevada, Missouri. He is one of 108 students who registered for the competition by November 1.
In order to build projects in Ag Mechanics, students must learn about specific techniques and equipment. For example, they must know how to correctly set the temperature of the welder so that it does not burn through the metal or make holes in the material.
In beginning Ag Mechanics, students learn the basic techniques of welding, such as flat welding (laying down a small weld on a flat piece of metal), lap welding (overlay pieces of metal), and tee joints (welding a vertical piece of metal to a flat piece of metal).
Students also have to be skilled in measuring and determining angles before they create projects, as well as how to use equipment, such as the skill saw, chop saw, grinder, and cutting torch.
Wildlife Management class participates in raising birds
During first semester, the Wildlife Management class raised fifteen chukar game birds as a hands-on project. From the time the eggs arrived from Rosebud, Texas, the students had to keep an eye on them until they hatched. Then the class had to clean their cage, feed, and care for them during school. Mr. Rice, the agriculture teacher, took care of the birds during the weekends.
Around that same time period, sophomore Matt Jones brought in sixteen chicken eggs, which were hatched and kept in a stock tank. His SAE, or Supervised Agriculture Experience, involves raising and caring for chickens. Likewise, junior Valerie Johnson brought in about a dozen chicken eggs for hatching. The main focus of her SAE is horses, but she also cares for chickens.
