Thirteen area schools attended the 22nd annual Farm Day hosted by the SEMO Cattlemen’s Association on Wednesday, April 26, at Flickerwood Arena in Fruitland.
Farm Day consists of two separate two-hour sessions, which started at 9:15 a.m. where students learned about how food and fiber are produced on local farms.
These sessions consisted of 10 stations where local farmers gave around an eight-minute presentation on how they also care for their land and the environment.
Following each presentation, there was a 10-minute question and answer session as well as hands-on experience for the students during that time.
Sessions included live cow, poultry, swine and beef cattle exhibits, a bee hive, an interactive soil and land model as well as various food products that were sampled by the students.
“This is the 22nd year we’ve done this presentation, and its grown from approximately 350 [students] to over 950 [students] this year,” Butch Meier, the chairman of the SEMO Cattlemen’s Association, said. “We have 13 different schools represented — Cape, Bollinger and Perry counties, and it’s just an awesome agriculture experience.”
Meyer went on to say that most children do not know where their food is coming from and think it is only coming from grocery stores.
“So, we are trying to relate that with food safety, and how dedicated these commodity groups are to presenting the best, wholesome food that there is in the United States or in the world,” Meyer said. “Each one of these commodity stops is very independent on its own, but we all realize to not be on our own — we have to all intermingle and keep the agriculture of Missouri going strong.”
Meyer went on to say most of the presenters have been a part of Farm Day since when the event first started making for it to be as consistent and informative each year.
