Putting bookwork into actual practice
Submitted photo
In 2010, the 60,000-square-foot FFA Enrichment Center opened on the Ankeny campus of Des Moines Area Community College. The building was a collaboration between DMACC and FFA. The Enrichment Center has classrooms, labs, meeting rooms and a conference center.
DMACC agribusiness program an undervalued asset BY TY RUSHING For Central Iowa Ag Mag
Des Moines Area Community College has strived for more than four decades to provide Central Iowans a place for an affordable education and the ability to learn a number of valuable trades. One of the most undervalued assets DMACC provides is its agribusiness program. Students who participate in this program can obtain a number of certificates or an associate degree in agribusiness. According to DMACC, this program
provides students with training in the latest developments in technical agriculture in both the classroom and in industry settings. DMACC also can provide its students direct on-the-job experience in agriculture. DMACC gives its students real-world agriculture experience, thanks to is 325-acre DMACC Dallas County Farm, which was started in 1999. On 200 of those acres, students grow corn and soybeans and harvest the final product themselves. “The farm itself is a great snapshot
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of an Iowa farm and kind of the daily adventures so to speak, ... and just an opportunity for more people to learn about where their food comes from,” DMACC Farm Coordinator Travis Lautner said. In addition to learning about crops, students get a chance to work hands on with both cows and pigs at the farm. The livestock facilities are capable of handling up to 60 cows and 20 pigs at one time.
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