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Kids get
two lessons out of the annual ag fair coordinated by the Logan
County Farm Bureau:
- Why they go to school
- How the agriculture all around
them affects their daily lives
For the past five years fourth-grade
students from all over Logan County have attended the fair. The
first years it was at the Logan County Fairgrounds. Weather was not
very cooperative many of those times. The past two years in the
Laughlin Center have worked out much better.
Two two-hour sessions are conducted
to accommodate all the students. The day flies by for both
presenters and students during the interactive sessions. Farmers and
high school students explain equipment use, animal nutrition, and
animal and crop production here in Logan County.
Soybeans, corn, dairy, hogs and
machinery were featured at five interactive stations.
Outside, broad smiles could be seen
through high-up tractor cabs. Short blasts of horns followed by
peals of giggles could be heard. It happens every year -- once one
kid finds the horn, it hardly stops honking, a farmer chuckled.
Students could step inside a trailer
and pet a Holstein calf that will one day be a milking cow. Farmer
Steve Irwin (not the crocodile man) and Lincoln FFA member Matt
Schreiner, both of Beason, explained that the cow would be milked
twice a day when she is grown, providing about 15 gallons a day --
white, not chocolate milk.
Inside, a penned mother sheep
stomped her foot, warding off any threat to her young lamb as it lay
beside her.
The students learned about soy,
corn, pork and dairy products by visiting various stations. Emphasis
was placed on the importance of education and its application to
farming.
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Vicki Huelskoetter ran the hog station,
where students filled "feed bags" with candies representing corn,
vitamins, minerals and protein required to grow healthy hogs.
Huelskoetter drafted her sister, Kay Stroud, who said she was happy
to be asked.
The two women grew up on a farm, but
Huelskoetter is the only one who remains in farming.
More than 250 students and 20
teachers participated in this year's Ag Ed Day, held on Tuesday.
Each year the committee tries to
change the fair a little and asks teachers for their evaluation.
Responses this year were that they missed the sheep shearing that
has been done in years past but that the fair was better than in
previous years.
Members of the Logan County Farm
Bureau board and women's committee who planned the event included
Jim Drew, Karen Pedicord, Mary Lou Klokkenga, Lynn Paulus and Vickie
Huelskoetter. About 20 FFA members from Hartsburg-Emden, Mount
Pulaski and Lincoln helped set up, clean up and conduct the
sessions.
Adults will celebrate Logan County
agriculture on Wednesday at a breakfast hosted by the Lincoln/Logan
County Chamber of Commerce. ["Farmers' Almanac humor to be featured at ag breakfast"]
This event will also be at the Laughlin Center. The highlight will
be the announcement of seven ag career scholarships.
For more information on agriculture,
see http://www.agday.org/.
[Jan
Youngquist] |
