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Show Take Note: 4 Wednesday, Sept. 27,2006 Ag Day on the Quad from 11 a.m-1 p.m. 797-1769 features@statesman.usu.edu Focus: Agriculture Carnivorous D 'o cows tip? Some legends say so. This recognized prank has become a rural controversy between those who swear they have successfully tipped a cow and those who claim it's realistically impossible. Although there are several different opinions, one fact 7 still remains: nobody is really sure> r ") plants are the next step When I first came to USU, it blew my - " ! ^ - ! ^ ^ — mind that Steve Shmney BY MEGAN SONDEREGGER ; Staff Writer ^ ^ ^ v | ..,M ^&3 :. ^ Brianne Potter, a junior in biology, Beat her friends were extremely bored. She said they tied rope around the cows' knees, buckling them, while several others pushed the cow from its side. "It totally tipped over and then it just kind of squirmed around on the ground while we ran like crap to get out of there," Potter said. They tried tipping the cow without the rope, she said, but it just became angry and ran away. Potter feels they were successful because the ground was very slippery and their roping methods helped knock the cow off balance. "It was muddy, there was manure allover the place and we were nasty, but I think it helped," Potter said. Despite this enthusiastic claim, • CARNIVOROUS PLANTS • TIPPING see page 6 see page 5 1. What makes a label transparent? a. You can see through the label. b. Information about organizational structure is available to the public. c. Information about organizational structure is withheld from the public. 2. W h e n a poultry product is labeled "Free Range/ 9 w h a t does it really mean? a. The hen may live indoors for most of its life b. it was shot on a free gun range c. It was raised on an open range with huge pastures and spends most of it's time roaming the open land. 3. If a product is labeled " m a d e w i t h organic ingredients," w h a t does i t mean? a. The product is made with no less than 70 percent organic ingredients. b. The product is made with no less than 50 percent organic ingredients c. The product is made with 100 percent organic ingredients. 4. A product t h a t is labeled w i t h "environmentally friendly" is... a. Good friends with the environment b. A product that has a label of "environmentally friendly" on it. c. A product that does not add any kind of negative stress to the environment. •ANSWERS ; see page 14 the whole college thing and my mind was blown a lot. Every time I saw a bra in the laundry room of my dorm, boom— there went my mind, blown. . My freshman mind thought, "Growing things isn't hard; I grow stuff in my shower without even trying." But I was young and easily distracted. A few days later, I saw a girl cook brownies in the microwave and my mind was blown all over again. But recently I've started thinking about the College of Agriculture again. I still don't get it. It's my fault. I'll admit I don't know much about farming, but of course that's never stopped me from talking about a subject before. Despite growing up in Idaho, my only experience with agriculture was a service project at a potato farm where we picked excess potatoes for the homeless. Mostly, though, we just threw them at each other's heads, for the homeless. 1 like farmers. They make food - which I'm a fan of - and they invented the blow that bears their name. The farmer blow remains, to one night because she and several of Quiz Yourself: had an entire college devoted to agriculture. Don't be offended; I was overwhelmed steveshinney@ccusu.edu P y said she decided to try cow tipping How much do you know about agriculture? we An endangered species? Bit by bit, more and more Utah families leave behind the family farm as the risks get to be too difficult. BY JON Cox Staff Writer Though most family farms in Utah are still hanging on, it's not getting any easier. "Some years you make a lot, some years you break even and other years you lose your shirt," said Ross Bailey, a senior majoring in agricultural education. "With the cost of equipment and land so high, you'll never pay off your debt in your lifetime," The native of central Utah's Fountain Green, Bailey chose to follow his father's footsteps and pursue a job in teaching while working a farm on the side. He spends each summer working the family farm before returning to USU in the fall. "Teaching school, I can at least have some sort of steady income," Bailey said. His classmate, Nicole Anderson, agrees. "I would love to see more family farms out there, but most of them have another job just to help support the farm," Anderson said. She wants to run a farm after graduation like her family currently does in Benjamin, a rural Utah County community. "The past few years, a lot of farms were sold around our land," she said. "People are buying the land to put a horse or two out V. V there. They let the field just go to weeds." Bruce Godfrey, a farm management specialist at USU, sees such trends mostly in Utah's more populous counties. Weber, Davis, Salt Lake and Utah counties in particular continue to see an exodus of their farmers to Utah's more rural counties. Residential developers then build on the farmland. Beyond that, farms are relatively stable around the state, Godfrey said. Some are losing ground, while others remain strong. Bit by bit, though, more and more Utah families leave behind the family farm as the risks get to be too difficult. According to the 2002 Census of Agriculture conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1,194 farms exist in Cache County, down • ENDANGERED see page 6 |