By Shala Watson
Multimedia Writer
A group of Denton-area high school agriculture students had the opportunity to put their textbooks away and get out into the field to learn more about an East Texas ranch.
Through a Smith County Farm Bureau program called Feed A Cow Today and See (FACT&S), about 30 urban students experienced hands-on learning on a working ranch.
During their visit to Coulter Cattle Company in Tyler, the students learned more about cattle management, husbandry and different breeds of cattle.
Guyer High School agriculture science teacher Laura Reed planned the trip to give her urban students the opportunity to interact with cattle and learn more beyond the classroom and their city surroundings.
“They live in Denton, so it’s urban,” Reed said. “Most of them live on like a tenth of an acre, so seeing somebody with this much land was really cool to them.”
Rex Coulter, owner of Coulter Cattle Company and a Smith County Farm Bureau board member, along with his daughter Kacy Mitchell, who is also on the Smith County board, gave students a firsthand look inside their day-to-day ranch operations.
The students fed the cattle range cubes and observed how to work cattle in the chutes and how ultrasounds are used to check pregnancies in cattle.
“We took them to the pen area where we have the chutes and alleys,” Coulter said. “We put a little jersey heifer’s nurse cow that we have in one of chutes and let them pet her and showed them how we caught her.”
They also discussed market differences and how the economy affects cattle prices.
“The students can really see everything that they learned in the classroom applied to somebody’s job and somebody’s living,” she said.
Coulter began the FACT&S program two years ago as a way to familiarize people with a cow-calf operation and to create a positive outlook on what they do on a daily basis.
“We want to show them that we are a humane operation and we try to take care of what takes care of us, which are the cattle,” Coulter said.
He also wants to get more young people involved in agriculture.
“The purpose is to just better educate people about what and how we produce beef, and also to give them some insight into what educational opportunities might be associated with the cattle industry,” Coulter said. “I don’t see that many young people getting into it [agriculture], and I understand why because it’s so capital intensive to start,” Coulter said.
He encourages other folks to get involved and reach out to more urban and youth groups.
Reed said the visit sparked fresh inspiration and career plans among the students.
“I think it definitely has inspired them to become more interested in agriculture or a career specifically in ag,” Reed said.
Reed and her teaching partner are already planning to bring students back next year.