ALBANY — New York Beef Council with the support of Iowa Beef Council and the Beef Checkoff hosted two virtual field trips for high school culinary classrooms involved in the ProStart program. Tim Pallokat, owner of Cayuga View Farm, located in Cayuga County gave nearly 250 students the opportunity to “visit” his farm and learn about beef production from farm to fork.
The 45 minute virtual tours included an overview of the beef life cycle including an up close look at a young calf and mother cow. The tour also included an introduction to sustainability practices and land management utilized on the farm, a demonstration of animal handling and discussion on antibiotic use and oversight, as well as, an in-depth discussion of what beef cattle eat and the finishing process.
Student from all corners of New York State joined the trips including classrooms streaming in from Long Island, Staten Island, Brooklyn, the Southern Tier, Central NY, and Western NY. When asked to assess the trip 100% of participating instructors indicated they would be very willing to both participate in another virtual field trip and recommend this virtual field trip to other teachers.
“This was my first time working with the New York Beef Council to host something like this”, shared Tim, owner of Cayuga View Farm, “the students were really engaged and I was impressed and surprised by all of their great questions, especially how interested they were in the economics of producing beef here in New York.”
–New York Beef Council