Students in Jeremy Hurl’s seventh grade classes at Duniway visited a local dairy farm this month as part of the state-wide Adopt a Farmer program. The program connects middle school classrooms with farms around the state of Oregon and features a field trip visit to the farm and multiple classroom visits from the farmer during the year.
“This is a great opportunity for students to see agribusiness in action,” said Principal Cathy Carnahan. “We are continually looking for ways to get our students out into our community and connect their learning to real life.”
As part of a unit on economics and agriculture, the students visited the Forest Glen Oaks Jerseys Farm in Dayton. Run by the Bansen family, the farm is a fourth generation dairy with over 3,000 head and an organic dairy operation that offers milk free of GMO’s, pesticides, growth hormones and antibiotics.
The farm raises much of their own feed and also produces an alternative energy source fueled by animal waste that can power 800 homes.