Classes Keep ‘Em on the Farm : Education: High school agriculture programs, once in decline, are seeing a resurgence.

Bobbie Salmacia, Mission Viejo High School’s agriculture teacher, has little patience for slackers.

“I want you to water those trees today, and I mean it,” Salmacia told a student the other morning. “This is Friday, our get-dirty and yes-you-will-do-that day.”

As Salmacia talked, the 80 students were sweeping walks and grooming animals.

“Our program has textbooks, but it also has something better,” she said. “After our students read something on the printed page about an animal, they can go outside and there the animal is and they can pick it up and see for themselves.”

Having survived urban encroachment, declining enrollment and a continuing vandalism problem, the Mission Viejo High agriculture program is beginning to thrive again.

The program’s six-acre farm, situated just east of Interstate 5 and north of the main campus, is home to horses, cows, hogs, sheep, chickens, bees and crops. It’s something of an anachronism among the strip malls, gas stations and tract housing that characterize the area.

“Twenty-five years ago, the area was certainly different, and as a result the program was a lot larger . . . about 150 kids,” Principal Bob Metz said. “We used to have two teachers working full time. Now we have one part-time teacher,” Salmacia, “and just two (classes) for Mission Viejo High School students and one for Orange County Department of Education students.”

But that is up from five years ago, when Salmacia arrived. Then, there were just 40 students and one class.

“We have kept the program going because it is so important,” Metz said. “The experience the students receive is valuable. They work with and around animals, and in this urban environment we are losing that. And this program teaches responsibility.”

Mission Viejo High is not unique in offering agriculture or in seeing enrollment in its program increase. Eight other Orange County public high schools offer agriculture, and some of those are seeing more students sign up for the program.

Greg Beard, an agriculture teacher at Fullerton High School, said his program now has 226 students, up from 130 five years ago. He said much of the increase can be attributed to an administrative change by the Fullerton Union High School District that allows students to substitute certain agriculture classes for science and fine-arts courses.

Tony Miller, the agriculture teacher at La Habra High School, said he now has 50 students, up from 14 students 10 years ago.

“Agriculture is a way to keep some kids in school,” said Miller, who also is the agriculture coordinator for the Fullerton high school district. “If they find a place in a particular area, something that they are interested in, they’ll stay.”

In Mission Viejo, many students arrive on campus as early as sunrise to feed and groom their animals, which some of the students purchase and raise themselves. They return to tend to them during breaks, lunch, after school and also on weekends and holidays.

The students, who call themselves aggies, say their interests set them apart from others.

“The ag students are totally different than the students in sports or in the Key Club,” said junior Jodi Bendgen, 16, who is president of the school Future Farmers of America chapter. “Some of the other students think it is weird to keep a lamb or a pig. But some think it’s neat, although all most know about the farm is shoveling the manure and the dirty stuff.”

“The farm is a place where you can get away from everything,” said Toyann Burnett , a 17-year-old senior. “When you break up with your boyfriend or something is bothering you, you can come down here and be with the animals.”

There are two categories of animals: those raised for personal use and breeding (the horses), and those raised for show and slaughter (the pigs, cows and chickens).

Sometimes the students will compete to buy a foal from one of the four brood mares the farm maintains. A student who is selected will begin taking care of the mare during her pregnancy, a daily responsibility.

“You have to make a decision that you are willing to take of the horse for 11 months while she is in foal,” said Sandie Hauf, a 16-year-old sophomore, as she walked her yearling Jazzmin. “Somedays that requires getting here at 5 o’clock” in the morning.

Then comes training and caring for the newborn horse, a time-consuming process.

“Each horse is like a baby,” said sophomore Julie Hall, 16, who is taking care of a yearling called Torie.

Whereas Julie, Sandie and the others with horses raise their animals for pleasure, those raising livestock know their animals are destinted for the Orange County Fair and then someone’s dinner table.

As evidence, just look at some of the animals’ names--Makin’ Bacon, Luau, and Shake and Bake.

“It was really hard the first couple of times” to sell an animal at the fair to the slaughterhouse,” said Jodi, who has raised lambs and hogs and now is raising a steer named Porterhouse. “But we try to support each other. And we know that when we get a lamb, that is what is going to happen to it and that if we don’t take care of it, somebody else will for the same thing. We at least know we gave it the best care we could.”

But sometimes the best care is not enough. The farm has had problems with people coming in and destroying animals. There have been several incidents over the past four years, and the Sheriff’s Department has been unable to make an arrest.

“The vandals tear the animals up,” said senior Mike Fletcher, 17. “It’s not as if they kill the animal and take it out of its misery. They let it suffer.

“What it does is make everybody angry. It’s like if somebody came to your house and killed your pet,” Mike said. Mike said he and others have spent nights at the farm hoping to catch the vandals, but that they have had no luck.

Although raising livestock will remain the farm’s emphasis, Salmacia said she and the students have begun giving more attention to the small planting area. She said that much of the farm was once occupied by orange trees and cabbage and broccoli patches but that today, only a small swath of land is planted, with potatoes, corn, onions and peanuts.

“But the kids need to learn where their food comes from,” she said. “Ralphs is not the answer.”

Farm Work Pays Off in Schools

High school agricultural programs and their products in Orange County:

Buena Park High School

Established: 1959

Size: 1 acre

Students: 72

Produces: beef, sheep, hogs, turkeys, rabbits, flowers, green beans, corn, broccoli, tomatoes.

Costa Mesa High School

Established: 1960

Size: 18 acres

Students: 120

Produces: beef, milk, chickens, quail eggs, rabbits, turkeys and flowers.

Fullerton High School

Established: 1941

Size: 3.5 acres

Students: 226

Produces: beef, veal, rabbits, sheep, chickens and flowers.

La Habra High School

Established: 1956

Size: 1 acre

Students: 50

Produces: beef, hogs, sheep, rabbits and chickens.

Mission Viejo High School

Established: 1965

Size: 6 acres

Students: 80

Produces: beef, horses, hogs, rabbits, chickens, bees, sheep, some vegetables.

Orange High School

Established: 1952

Acres: 3

Students: 165

Produces: beef, sheep, goats, rabbits, corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, beans.

Sonora High School

Established: 1963

Size: 1.5 acres

Students: 125

Produces: beef, sheep, hogs, citrus, peaches, plums, grapes, Christmas trees, flowers, decorative plants.

Sunny Hills High School

Established: 1960

Size: 5 acres

Students: 132

Produces: beef, hogs, sheep, chickens, flowers.

Westminster High School

Established: 1973

Size: 5 acres

Students: 80

Produces: beef, sheep, hogs, horses, chickens, corn, pumpkin, tomatoes.

Sources: Orange County Department of Education, North Orange County Regional Occupation Program, the schools.