Clay County fourth graders get hands on experience with Ag Day

Extension Educator Jim Luzar is one of the ones who heads up the event. He spoke with The Brazil Times about the event.

“Everyone is involved in agriculture because everyone eats three meals a day,” Luzar said. “This event does a great job of just demonstrating to the kids what agriculture production is while also providing a hands-on learning experience with the variety of activities that we do. We feel that it’s important for these young kids to learn about Ag.

“We know that most of these kids won’t grow up to be farmers, but it’s about drawing some interest because we live in an agricultural hot bed and the more knowledge they have, the better suited they’ll be later on in life.”

Along with his fellow Purdue Extension educators, Luzar was joined by many FFA volunteers with Northview and Clay City high schools. While the day was about teaching the kids about the importance of Ag, Luzar also said how important it was for the FFA members as well.

“We’re really thankful to have a great relationship with both the Northview and Clay City FFA chapters,” he said. “That gives these volunteers the opportunity to get some public speaking and leadership skills while getting the chance to be a mentor to the younger kids. This is a day that they look forward to every year and love to help out with.”

Another goal of the annual Ag Day is to inform the fourth graders on just how much goes into the world of agriculture. While not everything can be taught in just one single day, Luzar and his team try and be as detail-oriented as they can.

“There’s just so much and we could go on for a week straight and still not cover everything,” he said. “We take what time we can get with the kids and try and highlight the important things. At my station specifically (Indiana Grown), I talk about soilless farming compared to farming with soil and how Clay County agriculture is heavily dependent on that soil.”

There were also outside stations for the fourth graders to explore and learn about different farm animals such as pigs, sheep, goats, cows and much more.

Through the work of Luzar and the rest of the team at the Clay County Extension Office and the fairgrounds, it’s pretty safe to say everyone walked away with more knowledge of an important part of society here in rural Indiana.