Over 400 first graders from the Whitley Consolidated School, Smith Green and Whitko learned about agricultural based things during the Ag Day event held at the fairgrounds in Columbia city.
This is annual event which is organized by the Whitley County Soil and Water Conservation District with the assistance of the Farm Bureau Inc, and Cooperative Extension Service. And a large help from the Columbia City Chapter of the FFA students, who bring the various farm animals and then talk about them with the first graders. The guides who assist the teachers and first graders through the maze of ten different stops are also FFA members at Columbia City.
Preparations for the event begin the day before when Soil and Water board members set up all the pens, tables, and chairs to be used the next day. Local business such as AG Plus and Tractor Supply has been kind enough to donate wood chips to help bed down the animals. More Farm Store donated the use of two tractors for the first graders to look at and sit on during the event.
The chicken stop was staffed by Brett Roberts. He explained to the students how you could tell the difference between a male and a female chicken. How old female chickens are when they begin laying eggs and how often they lay an egg. The children like the colored chickens since they usually just see the plain white ones.
Griffin Brown brought one of the Alpaca they are raising at their farm. This was a new animal to Ag Day. Not only did the first graders have a lot of questions, so did Griffin’s fellow FFA members. This alpaca was about six months old. Alpacas are breed specifically for their fiber or their hair to be made into things such as sweaters, socks, or ponchos.
Mady Stricker, who is a FFA member, brought in her 4-H calves that she will be showing at the 4-H Fair this summer. She explained to the first graders that these are young dairy calves haven’t been separated from their mothers very long ago.
Jared Lamle explained some of the many uses of a tractor on a farm. He also covered why smaller utility tractors have roll bars to protect the operator in case of accidents where the tractor could roll over the driver. The first graders love to take a turn sitting on a tractor.
Pam Ousley represented the Farm Bureau Inc organization. She used a pizza to explain that all the ingredients that are in a pizza came from someone’s farm. And without farmers, we would not have pizza. Most children and adults aren’t aware of the importance of the American famer, because they go to the store to purchase their food. But they never thought about the fact that someone has to have raised that food before it processed and shipped to the store.
These are all the FFA members who helped make the day possible for the first graders. The members were Rebecca Lilly, Brett Roberts, Abby Atkins, Jessica Wietfeldt, Mady Strickler, Amber Ferrell, Courtney Wait, Griffin Brown, Jared Lamle, Kohltin Green, Brook Pettigrew, Payton Banks, Eryn Schinbeckler, Mary Carteaux, Loren Decker, Anthony Pence, Emma Smith, Jenny Hosler, Heath Atkins, and Ben Western.