The beef checkoff, through the Northeast Beef Promotion Initiative in conjunction with Hedgeapple Farms of Buckeystown, Md., organized an educational beef tour on Saturday, April 20. Two classes of culinary students from the Howard Community College (HCC) of Columbia, Md., attended the one-day event, gaining a first-hand look at the beef industry.
Dr. Scott Barao, Executive Director of the Maryland Beef Council and the Maryland Cattlemen’s Association led the group on the farm tour. "I was very thankful for the opportunity to help expose these future food service professionals to the full scope of our great beef industry in an honest and transparent manner,” says Dr. Barao. “We have a wonderful industry with a captivating production story to tell and there is no doubt that these students finished the day with a new appreciation of what it takes to produce safe, wholesome and highly nutritious beef."
The legacy of Hedgeapple Farm dates to 1731. Since 1956, the Jorgensen family has operated a dairy farm and a beef farm on the property. In 1997, the Jorgensen’s gifted a conservation easement to the Maryland Environmental Trust in perpetuity to ensure against development. Today, Hedgeapple Farm is operated for the benefit of beef producers in Maryland and the surrounding region.
* Photo caption: Culinary students from the Howard Community College, Columbia, MD tour Hedgeapple Farms, Buckeystown, MD.
The day started with a tour of the Hedgeapple meat market followed by a hayride tour of the farm and a look into the Hedgeapple cattle handling facilities. The tour concluded with a picnic lunch including hamburgers and cheeseburgers from the Black Angus cattle raised on Hedgeapple Farms. Dr. Barao says the students learned about the beef production from “conception to consumption”.
Bridget Bingham, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Beef Council addressed the students prior to lunch with a presentation on Millenials to help the students best understand this large, new generation of beef consumers. "It was delightful to tour Hedgeapple Farm with HCC,” says Bingham. “Dr. Barao is a master of transparency when telling the beef production story from conception to consumption. The students were totally engaged and that is the ultimate the goal if every farm tour."
HCC Culinary Instructor, Jana Anderson concluded the farm tour experience by saying, "Getting to expose hospitality and culinary students from Howard Community College to a farm that is so dedicated to sustainability and how it goes hand in hand in cattle farming was an incredibly valuable opportunity. Many of the students had never been to a farm before this trip, so overall; this was a very positive way for them to learn more about the beef industry."
Photos from the farm tour can be viewed on the NEBPI.org website at http://www.nebpi.org/hccfarmtourphotogallery.aspx.
Learn more about your beef checkoff investment at MyBeefCheckoff.com.
The Beef Checkoff Program was established as part of the 1985 Farm Bill. The checkoff assesses $1 per head on the sale of live domestic and imported cattle, in addition to a comparable assessment on imported beef and beef products. States retain up to 50 cents on the dollar and forward the other 50 cents per head to the Cattlemen's Beef Promotion and Research Board, which administers the national checkoff program, subject to USDA approval.
Source: The Beef Checkoff Program
