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Which came first - the chicken or the egg?
Fourth-graders in Warsaw schools may not know the answer to that old riddle, but they at least know how chickens and eggs look, feel and taste after Ag Day Tuesday at the Kosciusko County Fairgrounds.
At "Discovering Agriculture in Kosciusko County," students stopped at 10 activity stations that taught them where their food comes from.
"How many of you like to eat?" Extension Educator Joan Younce asked a group of about 20 kids.
All hands shot up.
"How many of you had breakfast today?" she asked.
This time only about half of the students raised their hands.
"Did you think about where your food comes from?"
No hands went up.
Younce then explained that cereal grains, eggs and other breakfast foods could be produced "right here in Kosciusko County."
Younce's station was one of 10 that explained and demonstrated the importance of agriculture in Kosciusko County.
At the station run by the Soil and Water Conservation District, students learned through a simple demonstration about soil erosion - what it means and what it does.
At the beef station, students looked at beef cattle and listened to Jay Haughee, president of the county Cattlemen's Association, explain about how beef cattle are raised, fed and harvested.
"A 1,200-pound steer will give you a minimum of 550 pounds of meat," he told his audience.
At the Creighton Brothers station, kids learned about eggs and chickens, and got a chance to hold baby chicks.
"Now, how old does a chicken have to be before she can lay eggs?" a teacher asked a group of students as they left to go to the next station.
"Twenty weeks old," most of them answered in unison.
Steve Johnson, a volunteer, hosted the farm safety station. He showed the fourth-graders a tractor, and explained what a power take-off is and how it can be dangerous.
He also showed them a small-moving-vehicle triangle and discussed what it means and why it's used.
The youngsters got to climb on large farm equipment parked outside as Bob Bishop, at Station 8, told them what a combine and a large farm tractor are used for.
To put things in perspective, a sign at Bishop's station read: "A new 4-wheel drive tractor costs $170,000 - you can buy approximately 87,000 Big Macs for that."
Bishop fielded questions, such as if "anyone ever got caught" in a combine, and how much a combine weighed "with all the corn in it." (17-20 tons, according to Bishop.)
The students learned that a dairy cow has its first calf at about 2 years old, and after a cow has had its first calf it can give approximately 100 glasses of milk a day. They also saw live hogs that were marked to show what part of the pig pork chops, ham and bacon come from.
All the students participating in Ag Day took a pre-test before boarding the bus to the fairgrounds. After they returned to their classrooms, they took a post-test.
The event was sponsored by the Kosciusko Farm Bureau, Kosciusko County Extension Office, and the county's Agriculture Awareness Committee.
To give students, their families and any other interested area residents a chance to see firsthand what kinds of foods are grown and marketed in the area, the first-ever "Taste of Agriculture in Kosciusko County" hosted a surprising number of people Tuesday evening.
Showcasing area ag industries and local farms, the Taste served at least 500 people free samples of such delicacies as duck sausage, buffalo meatballs, beef summer sausage, rabbit dressing and salad, goat cheese, Cajun pork, omelets and ice cream.
Attendees could eat goat cheese on crackers while they petted goats. Children could hold baby ducks, watch a horseshoeing demonstration or make their own mini-composting unit.
Organizers of the event were happy with the turnout Tuesday evening, attributing the high attendance to mild weather, free food and a curiosity about an industry that is important to Kosciusko County.
"We're really pleased," said Kelly Easterday, Extension Educator. "We'll probably do it again next year - I already have ideas for making it bigger and better."
Students from Tippecanoe Valley, Pierceton, Milford and Sacred Heart will visit the fairgrounds today for the second educational Ag Day.
