Educational Showcase

Each year numerous schools, organizations and community members come out to Bradford to learn about agriculture and science and have fun doing so.

For the past two years the Hallsville 4th grade class has came out in the fall to learn about where their food comes from and to learn about a variety of crops. As a reward the students are allowed to go through the corn maze and even pick a pumpkin.

Partners in Education

Bradford is proud to be a Partner in Education with the Columbia Blue Ridge Elementary School. For the past two years, Bradford has hosted nearly 480 students each year as an incentive trip.

Students learned about agriculture, how it affects their everyday lives, and had a chance to venture into the corn maze. As an added feature, hundreds of pumpkins were grown for the students to decorate.

Building a Passive Solar Greenhouse

A passive solar greenhouse extends the growing season and/or provides the ability to grow plants year around. Passive solar greenhouses can be used for personal use and provide an economical source of heat.

Unlike other greenhouses, a passive solar greenhouse uses water, concrete or some other heat holding material.

Making a Corn Maze

Have you ever wondered what goes into making a corn maze? When to plant the corn? Is there anything special about the corn?

For the past four years, Bradford has made its very own corn maze for the education and use of students and nonprofit groups by using Global Positioning (GPS) to recorde the coordinates of each corner.

Chromosome Walk

For the past two years, Bradford has been working with the Corn Genetic Group led by Georgia Davis, Ph.D. and Susan Melia-Hancock to develop the Chromosome Walk (Chromosome Maze).

This demonstration is designed to show how corn would change phenotypically if a mutation occurred at specific positions (bins )along each chromosome. A plot was planted with 10 rows of corn; each row representing one of the 10 chromosomes.

Gene Zoo

Each year, Bill Wiebold, Ph.D. and Travis Belt plant and manage the Gene Zoo at Bradford.

The Gene Zoo shows the ancestors of corn and soybeans as well as different maturities and single gene mutations.

Rose Garden

Bradford currently has more than 150 rose plants consisting of approximately 115 different varieties.

Roses have received a bad name over time since some are notoriously fussy and difficult to grow.

Even with this bad reputation there is still a temptation to plant roses because there's nothing finer than the scent of a heavily perfumed rose.