Farm Day draws third-graders from around San Benito
Children from schools around the county gathered at the San
Benito County Fairgrounds on Tuesday for an annual event that
teaches city
– and rural – third-graders about agriculture in the county.
Event co-chairs Allison Renz and Abby Taylor-Silva expected 900
third-grade students to attend Farm Day, and they enlisted the help
of 150 volunteers and presenters.
Farm Day draws third-graders from around San Benito
Children from schools around the county gathered at the San Benito County Fairgrounds on Tuesday for an annual event that teaches city – and rural – third-graders about agriculture in the county. Event co-chairs Allison Renz and Abby Taylor-Silva expected 900 third-grade students to attend Farm Day, and they enlisted the help of 150 volunteers and presenters.
Renz even talked her brother Allan Renz into presenting to students about farm equipment. At 9 a.m., her brother talked with a group of students from Sunnyslope Elementary School. He talked to them about a machine that is used to bale hay, and he explained that it was made so that one side of it can drive on roads and the other side can be used to collect the hay.
“I worked for my dad since I was probably about 8,” Allan said when talking to the students. “Does anyone want to be a farmer when they get older?”
A girl in a red sweatshirt raised her hand, and then the kids were off to another presenter.
Allan said that he volunteered at Farm Day events in Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo while he was in college and always enjoys it.
“You can show them what a haybaler is and most of them don’t know that at one time Hollister was the hay capitol,” he said. “I love this. It’s fun. Sometimes they catch you off guard with a question … Anything to promote ag.”
Nathan Wyrick, a fifth-generation farmer, shared the same sentiment. He presented for Pride of San Juan, and said he has volunteered for the last five years.
“I love teaching, and this is a great thing,” he said. “You gotta know your target audience. Less is more. Get ’em in, rile them up a little and then move them on.”
At his table, Wyrick required the children to wear hairnets, just as they would if they worked in a vegetable processing plant. On the table was a box of salad greens, and the kids could pick a handful to take with them.
At the end, he asked the children questions and each time they answered right, he tossed a handful of edible flowers in the air.
At another table three high school students watched over a cardboard box with baby ducks as children gathered around. In the box, the ducklings huddled together for warmth in a fuzzy, yellow ball. The presenters are members of FFA and they talked to the children about the ducks.
One kid asked, “How old are they?”
Another asked, ” How many eggs does a mother duck have?”
“How long do they take to hatch?”
The girls answered the questions and held the baby ducks out for the children to pet.
“These guys are probably a few weeks old,” said Courtney Cabrera, an FFA member. “They are full grown at three months.”
Another draw at Farm Day is the mobile dairy classroom. Jeff Byers, the instructor, brings along a trailer with a full-grown milk cow and a calf. The cow Ellie is a Holstein, and the calf Della is 22 days old.
“Della isn’t Ellie’s daughter,” Byers said. “Della’s mother’s name is Della. They have the same name.”
He explained that the dairy uses the names to keep track of different family lines of their cows. The cows both come from Moon Glow Dairy in Moss Landing.
During his presentation, Byers showed the students where milk comes from, and a few of the kids in the front row were squirted with warm milk straight from the teat.
“Della doesn’t make milk because she’s too little,” Byers told a group of students from R.O. Hardin. “She won’t make milk until she has her first calf when she is about 2 years old.”
Byers invited a student to come up and feed a whole artichoke to Ellie. The girl giggled as the cow took the artichoke from her hand.
At the end of the presentation, Byers invited the students to pet Della, the calf. The kids all smiled and squealed as they pet the calf.
“She feels weird,” one boy said, as he and his classmates walked on to the next presentation.
