Bear River’s chapter of The National FFA organization is an integral part of Bruin Culture and serves an important purpose, which is to prepare “members for leadership and careers in the science, business and technology of agriculture.” Farm Day, which occurred on September 18, provided another opportunity to further develop this purpose through the lives of the younger generation.
As an event organized by the Nevada County Farm Bureau and the Resource Conservation District, Farm Day is bound to offer plenty of experience to interested, young students as FFA Advisor and agriculture teacher Steven Paasch explained.
“It’s designed to make second and third graders in Nevada County aware of the importance of agriculture,” he said. “There are thirty different agricultural sectors that do workshops and show the diversity of agriculture and our county … There was a lot of diversity of different types of exhibits, but our students either ran some of the booths or they served as group leaders.”
The workshops included a variety of different activities, ranging from irrigation to the wide range of animals many FFA and 4-H students raise and show. Some participants described their experience.
“This year, I lead a booth about dairy cattle with my mama cow, Clarabelle, and her two week old baby,” said Junior Connor McGehee. “When we started each session, we asked the kids what colored cow makes chocolate milk. Most of these kids genuinely believed that brown cows made chocolate milk. I always like going and helping these kids learn a little bit about where their food comes from and hopefully gain an interest and respect for the agriculture industry.”
“This year I brought my cow calf pair and helped run the beef cattle group,” said Sophomore Molly Fowler. “The kids were super fascinated with the cows and asked a lot of questions. We had a quiz for them on cattle breeds after reviewing them a few times.”
Senior and President of Bear River’s FFA organization Katelyn Lorenzo elaborated on her excitement for the event.
“[I was excited to start] teaching younger generations about the agriculture industry,” she said. “… I love interacting with little kids and seeing them experience new things!”
McGehee also added his own opinion of what he was excited to do.
“My favorite part of the day is always interacting with the kids and sharing my knowledge,” he said. “I was lucky enough to grow up doing 4-H and FFA and being around agriculture so I got to have these kinds of experiences and it’s always fun to pass it forward.”
As mentioned before, many kids weren’t aware of how chocolate milk was made, which contributed to McGehee’s belief that “most kids in our area don’t know a lot about agriculture” as well as his explanation for why the event is essential to organize. Fowler described her own belief as to why Farm Day is an important event that all students should participate in one way or another.
“Farm day really gives the kids a chance to learn about agriculture, and to get out of the classroom and do some hands on activities,” she said. “ … They really just got to experience what it’s like being involved in agriculture in a way that is fun and easy for them to understand.”
