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IMMERSED IN OPPORTUNITY
ILS’s first-ever Immersion Day explores ag options
Immersion tech
It wasn’t the same-old, same-old at Wednesday’s Farm Immersion Day, hosted by Innovative Livestock Services, where 22 area high schoolers learned new things going on in the agriculture industry. New tech promoted by BTI included a digital program that allowed a tractor designated to pull a grain cart to be slaved to the movements of a combine that essentially improves performance during harvest in the field.

With the Kansas Department of Agriculture looking on, Innovative Livestock Services hosted its first-ever solo Immersion Day at the ILS Farm five miles southwest of Great Bend.

The event mirrored a Feedyard Immersion Day created by the KDA, hosted by ILS member Ward Feed Yard in 2021. Born out of conversations at the KDA’s annual Agriculture Summit, the immersion concept came from a need to connect high school students with agricultural industry partners in a hands-on experience.

“We are wanting to show high school students that when they are thinking about careers, agriculture is all around them,” noted Dana Ladner, compliance education coordinator for the KDA.

Ladner attended the Wednesday field day in an observational capacity; the ILS program played host to 22 high school students from Great Bend, Ellinwood, Larned and Macksville with ag vendors Mid America Seed, BTI, Valley Irrigation and Barton County Cottonwood Extension District as station presenters.

Each sector had something different to involve the students in a rotational format.

On Wednesday, students learned about pivot irrigation from Valley Irrigation with an opportunity to disassemble and reassemble a water nozzle and calculated yield estimates from ears of corn provided by Mid America Seed. Outside, they had a chance to drive a combine with a tractor digitally slaved as a grain cart with technology provided by BTI. 

They also learned how to write and give “elevator speeches” designed to promote themselves to prospective employers from Cottonwood District Extension Agent Michelle Beran.

The rotations were completed Wednesday morning. After lunch, there were awards, giveaways and promotional messages from Ladner, Beran, and several of the vendors.


Takeaways

Great Bend High School welding instructor Oscar Torres brought six students to the Immersion Day program. “There are really just a lot of opportunities available with a program like this,” he said. “It’s not just wheat you would see, there was a lot of hands-on stuff that the kids did that they enjoyed.

Dixie Gallant, a GBHS sophomore, wasn’t raised on a farm but had farm experience from living in a small town, she said. “I got to actually drive a tractor; I always used to ride in one.”

GBHS ninth-grader Jace Deines had never counted corn kernels to figure a yield before.

Lauren Akers, ILS communications specialist, was in charge of putting the program together. “We’re done with our first one; we can breathe now,” she said. “It ran really smoothly.

“The kids got so much more out of this that we anticipated. I think our major takeaway was that we are exposing these kids to local agriculture career opportunities. You don’t have to move far away; don’t have to go straight into college after school.

“You can have a rewarding career within our allied partners. We have kids thinking about their future in agriculture, which makes a difference for all of us.”