9-10 Teacher Externship Lesson: Livestock Nutrition & Feed Development

CTE Areas of Study: Agriculture

Standards & Objectives

Learning objectives: 
  • The goal of this activity is to develop a student’s understanding of livestock nutrition and feed development. The student will be able to differentiate between monogastric and ruminant digestive systems while understanding the components of an effective livestock feed formulation. This activity will allow students to demonstrate proficiency of Tennessee’s Standards for Literacy in Technical Subjects along with CTE course standards.
Essential and guiding questions: 

Text 1: “Nutrition of Meat Goats”

  • How does the digestive system of a cow differ from that of a goat? How does that impact feeding strategies?
  • How are the nutritional requirements for weaning or lactating goats different from non-lactating adult goats?
  • What happens to excess dietary protein in a goat’s body?
  • What is a method of preventing ketosis in goats?
  • Describe the author’s recommended feed formulation and feeding program.

Text 2: “Formulating Rations With Pearson Square”

  • What is the purpose for creating a Pearson square?
  • Distinguish between the values represented in the left-hand and right-hand corners of a Pearson square.
  • Which Pearson square steps would you modify to in order to mix more than two ingredients?
  • Based on the author’s description, would it matter if a given ingredient was calculated in a dry or wet form?
  • Using corn (10% CP) and alfalfa meal (45% CP) as ingredients, calculate the percentages of each required to feed with a 20% protein content.

Text 3: ”The effects of feeding sericea lespedeza hay on growth rate of goats naturally infected with gastrointestinal nematodes” (abstract and Figures 1-2 only)

  • Using the text, infer the function of “chemical anthelminthic”.
  • Why a group of goats was fed a supplement of Sericea lespedeza?
  • How is growth being measured in this study? Refer to figures 1 and 2.
  • Summarize the data represented on figures 1 and 2.
  • What are the ultimate conclusions of this study? 

Unit Variations

Blooms taxonomy level: 
Applying
Differentiation suggestions: 

Scaffolding and support for students with special needs, English language learners, and struggling readers:

  • Consider pre-teaching synonyms of difficult vocabulary words. Lower-level readers and ELL students can still be challenged without being overloaded with difficulty. This strategy can also be used to differentiate for stronger readers by introducing new, and more challenging, vocabulary. Struggling readers would also benefit from visual aids to illustrate many of the ideas presented. Pictures, diagrams, and charts alongside the text will go far to aid students as they dissect the articles.