Tuesday morning the fourth graders from Greene County and Paton-Churdan School Districts learned several aspects of agriculture at a local farm.

Greene County Farm Bureau sponsored the Farm Tour at Connor and Lindsey Juergenson Family in Churdan. Board President Alicia Heun said there were ten stations that the students interacted with, including cattle, pork production, drones, tractor safety, agriculture transportation, Ag in the Classroom, ag economics, conservation with water and soil quality, biofuels, corn and farm fire safety.

One of those organizations is the Greene County FFA Chapter. Advisor Raelynn Harris noted that the FFA’ers led the tractor safety station, as well as helped with the fire safety and the transportation stations. She described one important life skill that the seniors who helped on Tuesday gained from the experience.

“It’s also helping these seniors with their communication skills as they figure out what they’re doing in their next adventures. They want them to have leadership skills, good problem solving, being able to ask questions, and being able to advocate for the agriculture industry as a whole. Making sure that other people are aware of like this is something that we need in our society as we are providing food for the world.”   

Heun explained that one of the main reasons why they keep doing this program is because of the continuing decrease of the number of students that grew up or have a farming background.

“So we want to make sure that they always have an opportunity to find out where they’re food comes from and meet the people that grow food in our county. So we have lots of producers here, row crop farmers (and) livestock producers here that are lending a hand.”

Heun appreciated all of the volunteers that took time to teach students about their station. To finish out the event, the Greene County Pork Producers grilled and served everyone lunch on site.