Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
For the fourth year in a row, more than 1,000 fourth-graders from Kosciusko County will have a chance to "Discover Agriculture" Tuesday and Wednesday at Ag Day activities.
Located at the county fairgrounds, the event features 11 stations on such subjects as farm safety, food nutrition, soils and water quality, 4-H, farm machinery and crops, and on farm livestock - beef, dairy, swine, ducks and chicken.
The students spend eight minutes at each station before moving on to the next. They can touch, and in some cases, hold, the animals and talk to the people who raise them. They can handle crops or climb on farm machinery.
According to one of Ag Day's sponsors, the Kosciusko County Agriculture Awareness Committee, the event aims to help students realize how important agriculture is in their daily lives, to teach them the value of agriculture in Kosciusko County and to expose them to different livestock and commodities raised on farms.
Students take a pretest at school before they go to Ag Day events. After their visit to the fairgrounds, they return to school and take a post-test. In 1998, 878 students took these tests and their post-test scores improved by 27 percent over their pretest scores.
Students in Warsaw Community Schools will attend Ag Day events Monday; and fourth-graders from Tippecanoe Valley, Whitko, Milford, North Webster, Sacred Heart and HELPS (home schooling) will participate Tuesday.
Ag Day is also hosted by Kosciusko County Farm Bureau and Extension Office.
After Ag Day events Tuesday, the fourth-graders can bring their families back to the fairgrounds from 5 to 7:30 p.m. for the second annual "Taste of Agriculture in Kosciusko County: A Family Affair."
Last year the taste was a huge success, with more than 700 people attending, and this year promises to be nothing less. Free to the public, the taste offers samples of ice cream, buffalo, beef, duck, pork, lamb, rabbit, cheese, popcorn, omelets, herb dips and butters and goat cheese - all foods that are produced or grown in Kosciusko County.
Activities also will include 4-H projects, mini worm composting, horseshoeing, soil and water quality, a working sawmill and farm animals.
A family scavenger hunt provides a fun way for kids to learn about local farming and farm products, and gift certificates of $100, $75 and $50 to area groceries will be given away.
For more information about Ag Day events, call the county Extension office at 372-2340.
