N.C. Cooperative Extension-Alexander County Newsletter May 2023

Real Money. Real World: Students in Middle School Link Education with Future Lifestyle Choices

Teaching youth about financial management is becoming increasingly important especially since this generation is predicted to face higher levels of debt than their parents. Unfortunately, many of this age group have yet to receive financial guidance. A study from the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development in 2015 showed that of the 15-year-olds surveyed in the United States, 18% of respondents did not learn financial skills that are often applied to everyday situations, such as building a simple budget, comparison shopping, and understanding an invoice. According to the very same study from the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development in 2015, there is a clear gap in financial literacy scores based on the percentage of students in a given school who receive free and reduced-price lunch and that those who receive free and reduced-price lunches tend to have lower financial literacy scores.

One of the biggest surprises to participants was the cost of child care. One youth, who came into the simulation with only an $1800 monthly salary and two children, was discouraged to discover at the child care booth that daycare for his two children would be over $880. Volunteers at the Financial Assistance booth assisted him in getting a second part-time job after he discovered that “giving his children back” was not an option. Many had a newfound respect for their parents and what they deal with on a daily basis. At the end of the experience, student comments included, “Kids are expensive,” “I need to stay in school and graduate in order to get a better job later,” “Life is a whole lot harder than I thought,” and “I need to get the important stuff out of the way first.”

Special thanks to all the community partners involved, and to the sponsors who helped bring this needed program to the middle school students in Alexander County.

If you would like more information about Real Money. Real World. program, please contact Der Holcomb at the Alexander County Extension Office at 828-632-3125 or dxiong3@ncsu.edu.

Fence Line Weaning

Weaning is stressful, for cows, calves, and farmers. Stress is the number one issue that impacts calf perrformance at weaning including reduced feed consumption and depressed immune systems. Calves are trying to adjust to life without momma, and leaving a herd social structure that they were comfortable with. Reducing stress at weaning by including fence-line weaning will hopefully lead to an easier time on the calves, minimizing the effects.

Fence-line weaning is typically used in pasture situations and is just as it sounds. Cows and calves are sorted into different pastures with a fence between them. This reduces stress so that the calves can physically see their mommas, but not nurse. Research has shown that fence-line weaned calves vocalized less, spent more time eating, and had greater weight gains compared to those who were abruptly and completely separated from their dams.

Ideal fence-line weaning should be in an environment that:

Allows both cows and calves to spread out along the fence
Has minimal dust present (both sides will be walking fence line)
Provide feed and water resources for the calves that are familiar and close to the fence

For fence-line weaning to be effective please consider the following:

Place pairs in the pasture that the calves will be in, so they can get used to feed/water and fences.
Remove the cows to the pasture adjacent so they can hear, smell, and see each other but calves cannot nurse. Make sure there is a good fence! It could be put to the test.
After a few days the cows and calves will move farther from the fences and not be as concerned with each other.

A number of studies have shown that calves that were fence-line weaned have lower incidence of sickness compared with “hard” weaning. Some studies have shown significant increases in average daily gain and total weight gain for calves that were fence-line weaned as compared to their hard weaned contemporaries. Most often I find the cows hang around the fence line longer than the calves!