VERSAILLES – On May 8th the Versailles FFA Chapter sponsored their 48th annual Farm Day, an educational and fun field trip for local elementary students with 650 students in attendance. Farm day is designed to teach children about where their food comes from and how the American farm operates in this day and age.
This year, Farm Day was held at Johnny Schmitmeyer Farm outside of Versailles, home of Versailles FFA member Sam Schmitmeyer. Farm Day is set up in stations, which are led by Versailles FFA students. Classes are led around the farm by group leaders, all of whom are current FFA members. Over 700 elementary students spent approximately two and a half hours on the farm. Schools that participated in Farm Day included: Versailles Elementary, Anonisa Elementary, Covington Elementary, Franklin Monroe Elementary, Ft Loramie Elementary, Russia Elementary and Piqua Catholic Elementary, along with a homeschool class. One of the more popular stations in the past has been the cow milking station, in which students learned about the modern and traditional methods of milking a cow. Students even got to try to milk a cow themselves.
At the french fry station, students discussed the potato and where their french fries come from. They also got their own cup of french fries. There was a water quality station led by Jared Coppess and Elizabeth Farver from the Darke County Soil & Water, in which they used a virtual 3D Topography sand table.
The pollination station was taught by past Versailles High School graduate Erika Grogean, her dad Jim Grogean, and Versailles FFA members, which included information on bees and their role in agriculture and gardening.
A very important station is the Farm Safety station, where kids learn about the danger of grain bins, PTO shafts, and other hazards on the farm. At the cookies and milk station, students got a snack of 1 cookie while tracing all of the ingredients of cookies back to the American farm.
A special thanks to Reiter Dairy for donating the milk. Students received another snack at the yogurt station, where they learned about how yogurt is made. A special thanks to Dannon Yogurt for donating the yogurt.
There was also a petting zoo station supplied with kittens, puppies, baby rabbits, chicks, calves, a lamb, and goats. At the beef station, the Ohio Cattleman’s Association provided a hands-on investigation into the beef industry and students learned about different cuts of meat and their byproducts from beef cattle.
Wildlife is all around us, so students learned how to identify different animals in the wildlife station. Students learned about different principles of force and played tug-of-war in the force station. Farm safety provides hands-on, important life-saving tips around farm equipment and the walking farm tour provided an overview of the entire operation.
In the agronomy station, children learned about corn, wheat, and soybeans. They were also able to make a soybean stress ball. We hope that all children had fun at Farm Day and left with a better understanding of American agriculture.
All the children left with a goodie bag full of coloring books, bookmarks, pencils, and other material to further promote agriculture. A special thanks to Versailles FFA member Ruthie Smith for serving as the chair of Farm Day.
The Versailles FFA would also like to thank Dannon for donating yogurt for the yogurt station and Reiter Dairy/Dean Foods for donating milk for the cookies and milk station. Versailles FFA would like to thank the following FFA members, individuals, farms, businesses and organizations that donated equipment, animals, organization and supplies to make Farm Day successful.
A special thank you to Darke and Miami County Farm Bureau, Mid East UDIA, Ohio Soybean Association, Ohio Cattleman’s Association, Jared Coppes and Elizbeth Farver of Darke County Soil & Water, Erika and Jim Grogean, Dannon Yogurt, Reiter Dairy and Keller Feed and Grain. Most importantly a big thank you to Schmitmeyer Farms for hosting Farm Day.
