Jachob Haines 16 from Punxsutawney, Grace Stockdale 16 from Dayton, Gabrielle Kriley 18 from Rural Valley, Laurie Enders 16, Ford City was at the Penn State Extension in Kittanning showing off a demo of their Smart lamp.
A local group part of the Penn State Extension are trying to make big developments with warming pens and trying to sell a product that essentially regulates temperatures in an attempt to reduce harm to animals and lower the chances of fires and property damage due to overheating lamps.
Laurie Enders, 16 from Ford City, is one of the four members of the Armstrong 4-H Idea Makers and went into detail about what the project is.
“We call it the ‘Smart Lamp’,” Enders said. “Basically, it’s a controlled heat lamp. There’s a temperature sensor on it, and once it reads a particular temperature and gets too warm it will turn the lamp off and once it gets too cold, it will turn the lamp back on again and keep a regulated temperature in the area.”
Some of the questions asked by the Armstrong 4-H Idea Makers included: What are issues on the farm? What challenged do farmers faced in their animal’s birthing season? What safety hazards do farmers face? The hypothesis from the group was if a program was to be developed in which the system regulates a temperature, then a heating lamp would be safer and more convenient.
“For farmers, a lot of the time the heat lamps will get too warm and cause harm to the animals because it’s easy to just leave them plugged in,” Enders explained. “Then you forget about them and can lead to barn fires. So the benefit of this is you can plug it in and not have to worry about it getting too hot, your animals getting hurt and the lamp will regulate itself.”
Jachob Haines, 16 from Punxsutawney, discussed about how long it took to go from idea to production and other ideas for the project.
“From idea to the prototype took about 4 or 5 months,” Haines said. We are now developing an ap that will interface with the lamp so you can turn it up and down at any time for the temperature to turn off and on so you can turn it off remotely from your house by way of Bluetooth connection.”
Another member of the Idea makers, Gabrielle Kriley, 18 from Rural Valley, added how they used Jachobs barn to test their product.
“The animals we tested at Jachobs barn provided results better than what we expected,” Kriley Said. “Since it was getting warmer outside, we were worried the animals aren’t going to want to go in there but when we turned on the heating lamp, and gave the animals the option of going in, they went straight into the barrel, and hung out in there. We made sure to test it in colder temperatures, warmer temperatures, just to make sure the product would turn on and off and function properly,”
Grace Stockdale, 16 from Dayton, had the responsibility to contact and gather information regarding the project from the several group participants including Dayton Feedmill, PA State Representative Donna Oberlander, Armstrong Farm Bureau and many more.
“I had a lot to do with research. I had a lot involved with gathering information and contacting different people including Farm Bureau President Ross Grooms and other individuals to get input on the project.”
Laurie Enders, 16 from Ford City, is another member of the Armstrong 4-H Idea makers and discussed how the group took this idea and competed at the state level.
“We had our first presentation we competed in our pillar, which this year there was no one else in our pillar,” Enders said. “We still presented, spoke with the judges and took their questions. There was an announcement of who won in each pillar. The next day was the pillar challenge; everyone who had won in their pillars went up against each other to see who won overall in the state. We presented that day, had our lamps on display, and ended up winning 3rd place overall in the state.”
“These are still in development,” Jachob said. “Our next one we are developing will be our best one that we will look to sell out, but nobody else has this. This is exclusive through us.”
“We want to share with people what we are doing, what the lamp is, and when we do get that working model that we would like to share with people how it can benefit farmers,” Enders added.
Outside of the Idea makers, the Armstrong Country 4-H has many other activities for kids of the 8-18 age range to get involved with.
Debbie Kasanicky out of Leechburg is one of the two coaches for the Armstrong 4-H Idea Makers and is also the part of the 4-H as the Chief Development Assistant.
Debbie Kasanicky from Leechburg is not only a coach for the Idea Makers, but is also part of the 4-H as the Chief Development Assistant.
“From bicycling, entomology, embryology; these are things the kids can do on their town or within the club, Kasanicky said. “Horse clubs, livestock club, flowers, just everything imaginable. There’s something imaginable on all aspects. These are things to teach the kids that they’ll use further on within their life.”
Armstrong County 4-H will be hosting day camps throughout July. A sewing day camp if being offered between July 10-13 where participants will learn to sew and crochet with he help of an expert. There is also a Science Wonders camp on the same days where campers will learn about the wonders of science and how to use common materials to create summertime science projects. An expressive arts and cooking camp will be available between July 17-20 involving fun with all types of crafts and cooking to learn about food science and the arts. There is also a Great Outdoors day camp between the same dates where campers will learn about nature with the help of the Conservation District and other community partners. The deadline for get involved in these has been extended through July 5th.
If you would like to get in touch for more information, please contact Penn State Extension Armstrong County 4-H at 724-548-3447.
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