PEM Ag Day event is educational and fun
By Janet Kubat Willette
jkubat@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 04/08/2010 9:03 AM
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PLAINVIEW, Minn. — Excited elementary students filed into the welding shop holding their noses and saying eew.
As soon as they saw the animals, though, their hands were outstretched to pet, touch or hold.
Some headed for Ginger the Welsh pony where Beth Holst gave them combs and brushes and reminded them not to walk behind Ginger.
Others fed Lay's potato chips to Bronco the goat or cradled a long-haired rex. A few broke into a cheer, "Let's Go Bulldogs! Let's Go!" with the three bulldogs sleeping in their straw pen and guarded by FFA members. Other animals included sheep, pigs and Butterfinger, the purebred Ayrshire bull calf.
"It's pretty fun to watch them," said Shantelle Young, a Plainview-Elgin-Millville FFA co-reporter.
It's the fifth year the Plainview-Elgin-Millville FFA has hosted the National Ag Day educational event for the school's pre-kindergarten through third grade classes. The first year, about half the classes came, said agricultural education instructor Steve Hinrichs, who also advises the FFA. Now, all the classrooms come down, he said. The students look forward to the event and visit to not only interact with the animals, but also learn about agriculture through classroom experiences.
Timed to be near Ag Day, which falls on the first day of spring, the event is geared to educate kids on what's it's like to be on a farm, said PEM junior John Tighe.
In one ag classroom, four FFA members talked about the breeds of cows and the process of getting milk from a cow to a carton. Students shook a baby food jar of whipping cream to make their own butter and enjoyed the butter on crackers. They also enjoyed milk and string cheese, courtesy of Plainview Milk Products Cooperative, while learning that a cow has four stomachs, drinks 25 to 50 gallons of water per day and eats 90 pounds of food.
Students were quizzed on why it's important to drink milk — for strong bones and teeth — and how well they know their dairy products. They named milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream and butter.
In the second classroom, Jenna Kromann, Minnesota Corn Growers Association communications assistant, talked about the types of corn — candy, Indian, field and sweet — and the many uses of corn.
She asked a room of first graders what corn needs to grow and she was told it needs sunlight, water and love.
The first graders also wanted to know how much corn is made in Minnesota and why they can't eat Indian corn.
Kromann showed them that hot dogs, marshmallows, Mountain Dew, crayons and diapers are all made with corn.
On their way out, farmers Dan Erickson of Alden and Ryan Buck of Goodhue handed each student a pencil topped with an ear of corn eraser and a bag of candy corn.
More than 500 students attended the National Ag Day Celebration, Hinrichs said. The FFA starts planning for the event a couple months before. The week before, the welding class starts converting their classroom into a petting zoo, pushing everything to the side. On the day of, students and their animals were at school by 7:15 a.m. The first class arrived at 8:15 a.m. and the last left at 2:30 p.m. FFA members ate in shifts and took turns giving each other a break, Hinrichs said.
The event gives FFA members the opportunity to teach, give presentations, answer questions and lead a group of younger students, he said.
After the last class left, the noise level dropped in the welding shop. Tired FFA members started to haul out straw bales and sweep up loose straw in preparation for the next day's welding class.