Olympia High School Hosts Ag Day

By JT Schneider, OHS Torch reporter

On Thursday May 7^th, the Olympia FFA and AG department will be hosting its annual Ag day activities, allowing the grade school students to come out and discover more about agriculture.

Students who are in grades 1^st, 3^rd, and 5^th, will get the opportunity to come out to the high school and participate in the Ag day events.

Students get to learn about farm and off-road vehicle safety, information about agriculture, and get to see many animals. There will be cows, sheep, goats, ducks, and a horse. Students will even be given the opportunity to milk a goat.

OHS Junior Carson Goff said, “I love teaching the kids about cows and about where the cheeseburgers come from.” Carson will be bringing in one of her cows to help teach students about how and what cows are used for.

Kids will also be given the opportunity to learn about the soil in Mclean County through the Dirt cup that students will be making. Junior Bailey Hoerbert said, “The dirt cup helps teach kids about the profile of the soil here in Mclean County. It allows kids to visually see what each layer of the soil is made up of by using things that interest them like Oreos and gummy worms.” The Dirt cups are among the favorite of all the grade school students.

There will be a tractor also which will allow for the students to see what kind of machines are necessary in agriculture. Collin Loeffler said, “I will be bringing in a tractor and will be explaining to kids about the safety needed to operate it.”

Within the Ag classes there will be leaders that are assigned to an individual grade school class to take them through the different parts of the day. Senior and FFA President Racheal Koch said, “I love being part of Ag day. I believe it allows kids to learn about Ag and have fun while doing it. It’s a fun educational experience for the kids.”

Ag Day has been going on since 1999 which was around the time the green house was built. Before that there wasn’t a formal Ag day but students from the high school went out to the grade school and taught kids about Ag. Today Ag day has evolved into a great experience for Olympia grade schoolers and will continue to grow as the technology of agriculture is forever changing.