Colorado Agriscience Curriculum

SectionAnimal Science

UnitUnit 1: Introduction to Animal Science

Lesson TitleLesson 3: Animal Science Industry Trends

Colorado Agricultural Education Standards

Standard AG I 9.1: Understand the Agriculture Industry

Standard AGS 11/12.7 The student will understand the broad scope of science within the agriculture industry

Enabler AGS 11/12.7.3 Understand the trends and changes in the agriculture industry

Colorado Science Standards

Standard SCI 6.0: Students understand that science involves a particular way of knowing and understanding common connections among scientific disciplines.

Competency SCI 6.3: Using graphs, equations or other models to analyze systems involving change and constancy.

Student Learning Objectives

As a result of this lesson, the student will

  1. List the top producing countries for beef, sheep, swine, poultry and horses in the world.
  2. Be able to briefly describe the changes in pounds of production of beef, swine, lambs and broiler chickens over the last 50 years in the U.S.
  3. Write a short paragraph accurately describing how farms have changed in terms of size, population and types of animals produced.
  4. Accurately describe Colorado’s rank in the beef, sheep and swine industries in the U.S. and compare the trends to national trends.

TimeInstruction time for this lesson: 50 minutes.

Resources

Tools, Equipment, and Supplies

  • PowerPoint presentation or overhead transparencies of appropriate graphs and charts.
  • Blank, unlined paper, 3-hole punch and markers to make knowbooks.

Key Terms. The following terms are presented in this lesson:

Broilers

Interest Approach

Is anyone here an expert on the animal science industry? Great! I want to see just how much you as a class you know in a short pre-test. We will have an applause test (which ever answer gets the most applause wins) for each question to choose true or false as a class and at the end of the hour, we’ll check our work.

On slide #2 of the PowerPoint presentation, have student take the pretest as a class and record the general consensus for each answer on the board. Have students vote with their applause for true or false.

What do you know about the animal science industry?

•True or False: China produces more mutton and lamb, pork and chicken than the U.S.

•True or False: The production of broilers has gone up, while the production of lamb has gone down.

•True or False: Minnesota produces the most beef in the U.S., while Texas produces the most pork.

•True or False: Colorado is ranked 10th in the number of cattle and calves but 24th in the number of chickens.

•True or False: In Colorado, the hog inventory has risen since 1988.

As we study these statistics today, keep an eye out for this information – you may want to change your vote eventually.

Summary of Content and Teaching Strategies

Objective 1List the top producing country for beef, sheep, swine, poultry and horses in the world.

To record our knowledge today, we’ll be making knowbooks. A knowbook is simply three pages of paper folded in half and hole punched so it can be included in your notebook. It will contain important information about today’s topic, the animal science industry. In your knowbooks, take notes and you may draw pictures, charts, anything that will help you remember the information. Take two minutes right now and draw a cover page that includes the title, author and copyright date of the knowledge you’re gaining.

Beginning with slide #3, have students record their knowledge in note form in their knowbooks. Discuss any trends you see among the species; for example, China is a top producer and also has a high population. Point out that in a quiz, they will need to compare and contrast the U.S. and China in the rankings for these animals. Their knowbooks will also be graded.

Objective 2 Be able to briefly describe the changes in pounds of production of beef, swine and broiler chickens over the last 50 years in the United States.

Slide #4 contains a graph for beef, swine and poultry. Use this in combination with slide #5 to create an accurate picture.

Take a look at slide four and think for a moment. Can anyone explain to me what this says about cattle production in the United States over the last 50 years? They should explain that it has fluctuated, but over time has increased gradually. Great! That’s exactly what you need to record in your knowbooks. We are simply committing to memory the changes that have taken place in the United States over the last 50 years. In the next four minutes, I want you to record the same information for hogs, turkeys, broilers and lambs on the next slide. (Then review the trends to make sure they have them correct.)

Objective 3 Be able to briefly describe the changes in pounds of production of beef, swine and broiler chickens over the last 50 years.

Slide #6 is an excerpt from the U.S.D.A.’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. Let’s read it out loud because it describes a pretty accurate picture of what has happened in the United States in the last century. Who will help me by reading the first part?

Allow different students to read the slide and then move to the graph that complements it on slide #7.

The main information to record is highlighted in red and blue. Let’s take a couple minutes and summarize the information on this slide in 3-5 full sentences on the next page in your knowbook.

Objective 4 Accurately describe Colorado’s rank in the beef, sheep and swine industries in the U.S. and compare the trends to national trends.

Now it’s time to bring these statistics a little closer to home. Where does Colorado fall, when compared with the other states? If you look at this slide, you don’t see our name listed in the top three very often. Why?

While looking at slide #8, discuss issues, such as proximity to grain reserves, size of state, population density, etc.

Record these statistics on the next page in your book for your reference later. (After a few minutes) This is where we rank. (Discuss slide #9)

Where does Colorado rank?

•Ranks 10th in the number of all cattle and calves

–4th largest cattle feeder

•Ranks 5th in the number of all sheep and lambs

–3rd in the market sheep and lambs

•Ranks 15th in the number of all hogs and pigs

•Ranks 24th in the number of all chickens

These next few slides show you in graph form, how the numbers of animals, or inventories, in Colorado have fluctuated since 1989. Do any of these graphs surprise you?

Discuss current events that might have affected each species. For example; mad cow disease and cattle inventories, swine confinement operations and swine inventories, health food trends and chicken inventories.

The last slide contains the pre-test with the correct answers highlighted in red. Read through the questions and correct answers.

What do you know about the animal science industry?

•True or False: China produces more mutton and lamb, pork and chicken that the U.S.

•True or False: The production of broilers has gone up, while the production of lamb has gone down.

•True or False: Minnesota produces the most beef in the U.S., while Texas produces the most pork.

•True or False: Colorado is ranked 10th in the number of cattle and calves but only 24th in the number of chickens.

•True or False: In Colorado, the hogs and pigs inventory has risen since 1988.

Review/Summary

Present the following hypothetical situation to students as their assessment for the day.

To review and conclude the information we discovered today, I have a job for you. A local company has advertised a well-paid position for someone to promote understanding of the animal science industry to Denver residents. With your application and résumé, you are instructed to submit a written example of your understanding of the information in the knowbooks we created today. The trick is, you must do it in only 10-17 sentences or your name won’t be considered for the position. This is due at the end of the hour.

Application

Extended classroom activity:

  • Use the Colorado Agricultural Statistics Bulletin 2004, starting on page 118, to take a closer look as the agricultural statistics for your county. You can find this online at
  • Have students graph current beef consumption and production. Then, have them hypnotize and graph what they think would happen over the next five years if BSE was detected in the food supply from a beef animal. Have them analyze the data from the Washington State outbreak to test their predications.

FFA activity:

  • Students may choose one industry that interests them and study it closer, preparing a 10-minute presentation for the class to be followed with discussion to fulfill the requirements for the Chapter FFA Degree.

SAE activity:

  • Poll the class for the animals or crops involved in their SAEs and write a class set of statistics that describes the involvement in agriculture that those students demonstrate. This would make a great classroom display.

Evaluation

Have each student turn in his/her paragraph describing his/her understanding of the animal science industry for a grade. This also gives you an early assessment of each student’s writing ability.

Answers to Assessment

Letters should include most of the following statistics for full credit:

  • The U.S. leads in production of beef and veal, while China leads in lamb, swine, horses and chicken. The U.S. follows in 2nd for swine and chicken.
  • Beef production has fluctuated slightly, but has risen gradually. Its highest point was between 1970 and 1980.
  • Swine have seen a very slight increase with more dramatic fluctuation.
  • Lambs have seen a dramatic decrease in production.
  • Broiler chickens have seen a very dramatic increase in production.
  • Farms have increased in size, but the farm population has gone down and farms generally are not diversified now. Our population purchases more processed foods and farms rely more on exports.
  • Colorado is ranked 2nd in market sheep, 10th in all cattle and calves, 5th in all sheep and lambs, 15th in hogs and pigs and 24th in chickens.

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Unit 1, Lesson 3: Animal Science Industry Trends