Mark Miles of Ainsworth and Bryan Palm of Mitchell joined forces to come up with a way they could be true agriculture ambassadors to inner city youth. The two Nebraska LEAD 34 Fellows wanted to put the values and leadership skills they were learning through the LEAD program to work in a big way. So, they decided to donate six feeder steers to Maggie Kendall's animal science students in the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences, to help urban students learn more about real life animal husbandry.

AG AMBASSADORS: Mark Miles (left) of Ainsworth and Bryan Palm of Mitchell donated six feeder steers to the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences to help urban students learn about real life animal husbandry.

The farmers were following the lead of LEAD 33 Fellows the previous year who donated four steers to the same school. But, Miles and Palm wanted to take their effort a step further and haul the steers themselves to the high school in Chicago and spend the day with students there to talk about how beef is raised on Nebraska farms. "We have to make every effort to talk with urban folks about what we do," Miles says. "We wanted to take the steers out to the students ourselves so they could meet us and we could talk with them about what we do on the farm."

The arrival had been announced, so by the time Miles and Palm arrived with the steers, about 40 students were outside cheering when the truck and trailer showed up. "The students greeted Mark and Bryan and watched as they unloaded the steers" into a 12-acre pasture on the school campus, Kendall says. "Mark and Bryan stayed the entire day with us, talking about their operations, helping students learn about how to care for the steers and mix their feed rations," she says. "Right now, students are busy brushing, feeding and training the steers for show at a local county fair this fall."

For Miles and Palm, it's all about giving back and informing urban students about real-life farming and ranching. Miles says that producers have a responsibility to relate correct information to consumers about how food is raised and why producers do what they do. The trip to Chicago is part of that mission.

You can learn more about this Nebraska-Chicago agriculture connection by reading future Nebraska Farmer articles on the students' planned trip to visit the farms of both Miles and Palm and other agricultural enterprises in Nebraska. You can contact Miles at 402-617-6570 or Palm at 308-631-3750. Visit the CHSAS website at chicagoagr.org.