You can't do that in Columbia

Today I went to the University of Maryland, Central Maryland Research and Education Center’s open house. I thought that it would be really lame, but it was actually a lot of fun. They do this annually, so be sure to check it out next year.

They had a hayride (straw ride, actually) that went all around the farm and showed what kind of stuff they do there. The compost demonstration that was a stop on the hayride tour was interesting- they had plates and cups made from a corn base that you could compost in your own compost heap. This is one hades of a tractor for a hayride:



They also had a cow with a port hole in it so that you could put your arm in the rumen sack (which has a capacity of 200 pounds by the way) and feel all the chewed food. Amazingly, the cow did not mind at all. The chewed food did not smell very good: