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Students and teachers are welcomed to
agriculture through five "hands-on" stations featuring soybeans,
corn, dairy, hogs and machinery.
Logan County Farm Bureau Women's
Committee members host the soybean station, where youths make "Beany
Baby" necklaces. The students learn more about products that are
made from soybeans by playing "soy bingo."
FFA members offer demonstrations to
the youth.
Hartsburg-Emden FFA members discuss
farm machinery safety with the students and then take them outside
to view and sit in the tractor, combine and machinery provided by
Central Illinois Ag, Cross Implement and Rohlfs Implement.
Mount Pulaski FFA members host the
corn station, where the students make colorful biodegradable
plastic. Mixing corn starch, water, corn oil, food coloring and then
microwaving, students can see the possibilities of plastics from
corn. Grocery products containing corn are also be on display.
Lincoln FFA members talk dairy facts
with the students as they make an ice cream shake-up.
Steve Irwin of Beason has his dairy
calf on hand for the students to view and pet. They can also place
their thumbs in the electric milker to see just how the cow feels
when milked!
Students visiting the hog station
are treated to filling "feed bags" with candies representing corn,
vitamins, minerals and protein required to feed and grow healthy
hogs for today's consumers. Vicki Huelskoetter explains how pigs
grow and has baby pigs on hand for the young people to pet and hold.
Fourth-graders stopping by the hog station are also treated to
taste-testing "pork sausages."
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The closing segment of the sessions
features live baby sheep. Steve Schreiner, Logan County Farm Bureau
board member, talks with the students about raising sheep and then
answers questions.
Schools participating in this year's
Ag Ed Day are Central School, Chester-East Lincoln, Elkhart,
Hartsburg-Emden, New Holland-Middletown, New Wine Christian,
Northwest, Mount Pulaski, Washington-Monroe, West Lincoln-Broadwell,
Zion Lutheran-Lincoln and Zion Lutheran-Mount Pulaski.
Students and teachers are given
take-home packets that include more than 15 agricultural-related
items in each packet.
Participants are invited to enter
the "Celebration of Agriculture" essay contest after they attend the
Ag Education Day. Essays entitled "What Agriculture Means to Me"
will be judged by the Phi Theta Kappa honorary society at Lincoln
College. Trophies will be awarded for the top five essays.
Members of the Logan County Farm
Bureau organized the fair in celebration of
National Ag Day.
[News release]
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