812-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, September 16, 2000
Franklin Fall Farm Fun Fest Features Farming
Alexa Stoner and Carolyn Moyer team up at the Mid-Atlantic Dairy
Council exhibit to help students bone up on the importance of calcium
to their health. Along with dairy fact sheets, students were provided
with recipes to give them ideas to make and eat dairy products.
MICHELLE RANCK Gerald Reichard, Waynesboro,
Farming Staff this year marks the 10th fall fest.
MERCERSBURG (Franklin The first six years, said Rei-
Co.) —lf you think that saying chard, were a Saturday event
“Franklin Fall Farm Fun Fest” open to the general public. Later
is challenging, try channeling the the event was changed to include
energy of more than 1,600 fourth the field trip day for fourth grad
grade students on a field trip to a ers.
local dairy farm. Seven school districts now
Held this year at Stoner’s send approximately 65 class-
Hijos Farm in Mercersburg, the
event changes locations each
year. Sponsored by the Franklin
County Farm Bureau, the three
day educational event allows stu
dents to experience firsthand a
working farm as they tour the
grounds and rotate through 18
interactive exhibits stationed
around the farm
A fast-moving schedule of
seven minutes at each station
kept the students moving to all
areas of the farm such as the
milking parlor, the dry cow/
hospital barn, milk tank room,
feed storage, and farm machin
ery display.
The 25-minute wagon tour in
cluded stops to talk about con
servation practices, observe
crops, see the Slurrystore and
check out the freestall barn. A
bale maze, pietting zoo, and free
ice cream were also highlights of
the day.
Growing Participation
According to promotion and
education committee member
and former agriculture teacher
Mark Yarish, dairy specialist at Purina Mills, demon
strates to the fourth graders the ingredients of feed in a
cow’s rations. Students found it hard to believe a cow
could eat almost double of an average fourth grader’s
weight, 100-110 pounds of feed per day. Yarish pointed
out that since cows may also drink 40 gallons a day the
farmers must take care of their local water system.
Philip Wagner, Franklin County extension agent, de
scribes the replacement role of the farm’s "teenage
cows” at the heifer barn. Wagner described how the
heifer pens are sorted by weight. To answer the stu
dents’ question of whether or not the ear tags hurt,
Wagner compared the ear tags to ear piercing.
teacher Ms. tion systems of the bam.
Shearer from Aat the farm s Slurrystore a
Shalom Chris- representative from the Conser
tian Academy, vati ° n described the
students at the P roWems of algae, bacteria, and
school spend excessive nutnents for the Bay
four weeks dur- and producer efforts to install
ing social studies ma P ure management systems
class learning and storages to slow or stop nu
about and com- trient ranoff.
paring fanning Extension agent Ann Bonson
regions of the behev es that educational days
regions oi me such Franklin Coun ty. s fall
“it’s a great est are valuable in teaching chil
introduction for d ™ the connection between
. . food and where it comes from.
ieTin the school Bonson demonstrated to the
veal Fewer of students the different P arts of a
our children p,ant ’ 31111 how they are edible ’
. . such a potatoes as roots. Bonson
r % .. also showed the students grocer
farmers, so ttas ies and asked about their ingredi
ents t 0 help the students relate
help tads under- voeaka from the store to the
stand how it op- farm.“ Most kids do not even
crates, and know that chips are made of po-
Jamie Stoner, wife off farm co-owner Todd Stoner, introduces stu- what is involv- said Bonson. One stu
dents to the younger members of the dairy herd. Jamie helps to feed ed ’” sa i d bis.
the 50 calves mornings at Hijos Hill,
/
/
times an op
t i o n for
guests to
tour a poul
try, buffalo,
or horse
farm, fish
hatchery, or
orchard.
Because of
increased
school par
ticipation
each year,
numbers
have in
creased dramatically.
“We have had a tremendous
amount of cooperation from the
school districts, FFA members
serving as tour guides, present
ers, and sponsors,” said Rei
chard. Approximately 60-75 peo
ple serve as either presenters or
event organizers.
Promotion and education
committee members Haydee
Middour, Waynesboro, and
Margie Meyers, St. Thomas,
monitored the time for the
seven-minute rotations through
out the day.
“Everybody (school districts)
has been enthusiastic about the
event, so it’s been expanding,”
said Middour.
According to Middour, the
event is held in different parts of
the county each year to expose
more people to agriculture.
Valuable Supplement
To School Curriculum
The day provides children
with valuable exposure to some
thing they have little or no expe
rience with, according to Cham
bersburg teacher Jerry Barrick.
“None of these kids live on a
farm, and none of them know a
things about a farm, or even
have relatives on a farm,” said
Barrick. “It will be a learning ex
perience.”
The petting zoo and calves
were favorite activities of Bar
rick’s students. “Getting the
chance to put milkers on a cow
was also a big thrill,” said Bar
rick.
rooms to
participate
in the event.
The students
tour the farm
two days be
fore the farm
is opened to
the public on
Saturday.
Traditionally
1,200 to
2,000 people
attend the
event over
the weekend.
In addi
tion to the
host dairy
farm, a bus
tour is some-
Tim Brookens, also a fourth
grade teacher at Chambersburg,
agreed that students have limited
experience with agriculture.
“Even in our rural area, there’s
not a lot of kids that know any
thing about farming,” said
Brookens.
According to fourth grade
Steve Stoner, co-owner of Hijos Hill, describes the fine
art of the mowing process. “All this equipment is like
Shearer.
“We do a unit on Pennsylva
nia which will get into Pennsyl
vania agriculture,” said Cham
bersburg teacher Jodi Feltman.
In her class the students leam
about the products grown in
Pennsylvania and compare these
products with other commodities
grown in the U.S.
The Stations
In the frees tall barn, Joe Mid
dour described the comfortable
living conditions of farm’s 500
cows. He pointed out the fresh
feed and water, the rubber mats,
the scraped alleys and ventila-