Livestock SAE Visits

As part of my student teaching internship, I have the opportunity to visit my student's Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) projects. SAE projects are a critical component of the three-component model of agricultural education, as they provide students the chance to apply what they have learned in relevant and meaningful ways outside of the classroom. SAE projects often help students build knowledge and skills that are relevant to their future careers. Student begin with a Foundational SAE project that is focused on career exploration, and after identifying potential opportunities, students can move into an immersion SAE that is specifically focused to their personal area(s) of interest.

This past July, I had the opportunity to visit my first SAE projects at the Troy Fair. Several of my students show livestock animals at the Troy Fair, which is the county fair for Bradford County, PA. At the fair, many of my students showed a variety of species, including Simon Beeman, Amber Galvin, Meagan Galvin, Rachel Jelliff, and Abram Steinfelt. Because I did not come from a background of raising or showing livestock, the experience in seeing these projects was very valuable for me!

In addition to seeing the students in action, it was one of the first times where I got to meet the students and learn more about their interest in animals and agriculture. Because I was new to the area and community at the time of this visit, I spent as much time as I could learning to know people and understanding more about the process the students engage in to raise and show their livestock. Students use the Agricultural Experience Tracker (AET) to keep records on their projects and submit their projects to the fair using a system called Fair Entry. Students can also use the Livestock Manager feature on the AET The financial and journal records associated with raising steers, pigs, dairy cows, goats, lambs, rabbits, and more are complicated! I learned to know the members of the Bradford County Open-Youth Livestock Expo (BCOYLE) committee and jumped in to help out with the dairy show to make sure the right animals were coming into/out of the show ring. Since beginning student teaching full-time, I have been able to attend other BCOYLE meetings to understand the role of an agricultural educator in helping with county fairs and their student's livestock projects.

My students did an incredible job of maintaining high-quality records and demonstrated impressive skills as their cared for and exhibited their animals. I have learned a lot from my students about livestock SAE projects, and I believe they can be used as an incredible example of applied learning and skill development that comes through school-based agricultural education. My cooperating teachers also had the chance to apply for and receive grant funding for a set of livestock grooming equipment for all of the Athens FFA members to share, which has made great strides in helping students care for their animals efficiently and with a high degree of quality at the fair. As a future agricultural educator, I will work diligently to support my own students with livestock SAE projects and continually seek ways to expand access to these incredible opportunities.