Pennsylvania Beef Checkoff Takes Youth On Virtual Farm Field Trips

Bedford – Pennsylvania and Northeast high school and post-secondary culinary students had the opportunity to virtually tour a Beef Farm on Thursday, October 4th and a Veal Farm on Tuesday, October 23rd  which both call home in Pennsylvania The Pennsylvania Beef Council (PBC), through a partnership with Shift-ology Communications hosted these one-of-a-kind learning experiences that turned classrooms into a virtual beef and veal farms utilizing Zoom video conferencing technology. With the click of a mouse, students were transported to farm fields, viewed animals and feedstuff live, all while learning more about how food is raised in Pennsylvania. The field trip showcased what farmers do each day to care for their cattle. Students even had the ability to chat live with Frank Stoltzfus, Farm Manager, of Masonic Village Farm and Jeff and Dana Gessner, Owners, of Gessner’s Veal Farm during a live Q&A session.

Four schools from across the region tuned in to the virtual beef field trip live and asked many engaging questions regarding the beef lifecycle, what cattle eat, etc. The live field trip had a reach of 170 students. One school from Pennsylvania tuned into the virtual veal field trip. The live field trip reached 60 students. A recorded version of the field trips will be distributed to those classrooms who could not be present. Kaitlyn Carey, Director of Consumer Affairs with the PBC noted, “This video conferencing technology gave us the ability to share real-life beef and veal farms with a large group of students across the region. We are very excited to see the continued reach and impact of this video across our Beef & Veal in the Classroom Program. Without this technology we would not be able to offer this type of experience to students.”

This virtual tour was made possible by the Pennsylvania Beef Council with funding support from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. To learn more about the Pennsylvania Beef Council, visit www.pabeef.org and for more information about your beef checkoff investment, visit 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 may 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.

Internal links within this document are funded and maintained by the Beef Checkoff.  All other outgoing links are to websites maintained by third parties.

Source: The Beef Checkoff Program