Life Cycle of Dairy Cattle
Teacher Preparation
Learning Goal
Upon completion of this lesson students will be able to identify key terms and parts of the life cycle of dairy cattle.
Critical Vocabulary:
- Calf
- Cow
- Newborn
- Heifer
- Yearling
- Mature
- Holstein
- Jersey
- Weaning
- Peak Lactation
- Dry Cow
Learning Standards
-
PK.1.R.1 Students will actively listen and speak using agreed-upon rules with guidance and support.
-
PK.1.R.2 Students will begin to ask and answer questions about information presented orally or through text or other media with guidance and support.
-
PK.4.R.1 Students will acquire new academic, content-specific, grade-level vocabulary and relate new words to prior knowledge with guidance and support.
-
PK.6.R Students will begin to identify pictures, charts, grade-appropriate texts, or people as sources of information on a topic of interest.
-
PK.S.3 Notice and describe similarities and differences among plants, animals, and objects.
-
PK.S.6 Engage in investigations based on curiosity and wondering about the physical and natural world.
Resources & Materials
- VT Life Cycle
- Southwest – southland dairy farmers Milk. From Cows to Kids
- NC State Feeding Dairy Heifers
- EPA Lifecycle Production Phases
- US Jersey A Quality Heifer
- PSU Daiy Heifer Growth
- Visuals in the dairy center
- Student tour guides
Lesson Delivery
Anticipatory Set
- How do people grow? - Life stages of people, as a basis for comparison
- Provide students with images of people at various life stages to equate to various
life stages of cattle
-
-
- Infant, child, teenager, adult, elderly
-
-
- Provide students with images of people at various life stages to equate to various
life stages of cattle
-
- As you show images to students, ask what they would call a person at that age (ex. Baby, kid, grown up, grandma, etc.)
- Use questioning and sharing to discuss how different people at different life stages can perform different tasks.
- Explain that the same is true in the cows that give us milk; they are able to different things at different ages or life stages.
- Today we are going to learn about what cattle can do at different life stages and learn the words used to describe those stages.
Direct Instruction
1st Learning Goal: Upon completion of this lesson students will be able to identify key parts of the life cycle of dairy cattle.
(info from VT Life Cycle and NC State Feeding Diary Heifers)
Content Outline |
---|
Newborn Calf
|
6-month-old heifer
|
Yearling
|
2-year-old Cow
|
Learning Activity
Students could be provided with a coloring sheet showing the growth stages of dairy cows.
Assessment
Questioning
Instructor could ask questions throughout or at the completion of the lesson like:
- What do we call a baby cow? (Calf)
- How old are the cows we get milk from? (2, or more)
- What are the breeds of cows we learned about? (Holstein & Jersey)
- What is a heifer? (A cow that hasn't had a calf/baby)