Colorado Reader 01/2018 | Page 9

Teacher ’ s Guide

Ag in the Classroom - Helping the Next Generation Understand Their Connection to Agriculture
Additional Resources growingyourfuture . com - connects you to Colorado ’ s Agriculture in the Classroom program . A variety of resources are available at this site . Need a lesson about food , fiber & more ? Find it here .
These related lessons can be found by going to www . growingyourfuture . com and clicking on the curriculum matrix . Type in the name of the lesson .
Build it Better In this lesson students investigate animal handling preferences and design a cattle corral system that is durable , efficient , and effective . Students will also discover the skills needed to be an agricultural engineer .
Caring for the Land Students will explain why people have different opinions regarding soil management and identify cause and effect relationships relating to agriculture and the environment .
Got Guts ? In this lesson students will investigate the different digestive systems of livestock and learn how animals have unique nutritional needs based on these structures . Students will also discover the responsibilities of an animal nutritionist .
Homes on the Range In this lesson students will design a board game that reinforces how rangelands provide habitat for livestock and wildlife while benefiting humans , animals , and plants . Students will also learn about the responsibilities of a range manager .
Making a Brand for Ourselves the “ Cowboy ” Way Students will explore cowboy culture and history and learn about 19th-century Texas cattle trails . Activities include writing cowboy poetry , mapping historic cattle trails , and creating cattle brands .

Hay

We would like to thank Vincent VanHook for his help and resources for this reader . He has put a PowerPoint on YouTube that shows the haying process . You can view it here https :// youtu . be / bPQ-tkPb6o8 .
Hay or grass is the foundation of the diet for all grazing animals and can provide as much as 100 % of the food required for an animal . Hay is usually fed to an animal in place of allowing the animal to graze on grasses in a pasture , particularly in the winter or during times when drought or other conditions make pasture unavailable . Different types of animals require hay that consists of similar plants to what they would eat while grazing , and likewise , plants that are toxic to an animal in pasture are also toxic if they are dried into hay .
The proper amount of hay and the type of hay required varies somewhat between different species . Some animals are also fed concentrated feeds such as grain or vitamin supplements in addition to hay . In most cases , hay or pasture forage make up 50 % or more of the animal ’ s diet .
One of the most significant differences in hay digestion is between ruminant animals , such as cattle and sheep ; and nonruminant , such as horses . Both types of animals can digest cellulose
Comments , questions , suggestions and feedback about the Colorado Reader are welcome . Contact : Colorado Foundation for Agriculture Bette Blinde , Director PO Box 10 Livermore , CO 80536 Phone 970-881-2902 bblinde @ growingyourfuture . com www . growingyourfuture . com in grass and hay , but do so by different mechanisms . Because of the fourchambered stomach of cattle , they are often able to break down older forage and have more tolerance of mold and changes in diet . The single-chambered stomach and cecum or “ hindgut ” of the horse uses bacterial processes to break down cellulose and are more sensitive to changes in feeds and the presence of mold or other toxins .
Different animals also use hay in different ways : cattle evolved to eat forages in relatively large quantities at a single feeding , and then , due to the process of rumination , take a considerable amount of time for their stomachs to digest food , often accomplished while the animal is lying down , at rest . Sheep will eat between two and four percent of their body weight per day in dry feed , such as hay , and are very efficient at obtaining the most nutrition possible from three to five pounds per day of hay or other forage .
Unlike ruminants , horses digest food in small portions throughout the day , and can only use approximately 2.5 % of their body weight in feed in any 24-hour period . They evolved to be continuously on the move while grazing , ( covering up to 50 miles ( 80 km ) per day in the wild ) and their stomach digests food quite rapidly . Thus , they extract more nutrition out of smaller quantities of feed .
Page 2 - Hay Customers horses sheep cattle goats