This week a special visitor came to Wagner Farm. Dr. Temple Grandin who is a professor at Colorado State University did a program on best practices in livestock care and handling. It is an interesting story on how this all came about. Julie Tracy, one of the leaders of the Glenview Clovers 4-H club actually just picked up the phone and called Temple. After a couple conversations Temple made plans to visit the farm and meet the kids in this unusual urban 4-H club. During her presentation she talked about how wonderful it is to see a place that kids can actually learn about agriculture. She also spend a good deal of time instructing on proper methods of livestock care and handling. Temple's work in this field is amazing. She was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine in 2010. The other part of Temple's remarkable story is she has done all this while dealing with autism. She talked about how being autistic actually enhanced her ability to be a visual thinker. When she looks at a livestock environment she is able to see what the animal see and then she can offer suggestions to improve it. In 2010 HBO made a movie about Temple's life and it won 7 Emmy awards and was selected for archieving in the Library of Congress. Meeting Temple was definitely a huge highlight and a great learning opportunity.
