Kids Grip Ag
Annual Farm Day held at fair
The Porterville Fair’s annual Farm Day is one reason why Tulare County has become one of the world’s largest, if not the largest agricultural producer.
The Farm Day starts them out young as every year the fair gives second graders from local schools a chance to experience every aspect of agriculture and what it takes to be a farmer.
And what it took to be a farmer long ago as demonstrated by longtime local education Dan Hogan, who was back again to give his historical presentation on hunting. Before the day ended on Friday there would be 1,600 second graders who experienced virtually every aspect of agriculture.
But even in the Porterville area many of the second graders were experiencing agriculture and animals for the first time.
“For some of them this is their only chance to come to the fair,” said Farm Day coordinator Veronica Wickersham, who added each student who attends Farm Day receives a free ticket to the fair.
Farm Day begins with the annual tradition of Porterville Junior Fair Board members performing for the kids “Dirt Made My Lunch” while the kids sing along.
“It’s a lot of fun,” said Porterville Jr. Fair Board president Brenna Galloway about Farm Day. Galloway is a Porterville High FFA senior.
“I come from ag people. To teach young kids about agriculture is a fun thing to do.” Galloway added when it comes to the students experience the different aspects of agriculture, “to basically teach them about that is rewarding.”
The phrase “it’s a lot of fun” when describing Fair Day kept coming up as Junior Fair Board advisor Shawn Davila also used that term. “The Junior Fair Board does a wonderful job,” she said.
“They're an amazing group.”
After the Junior Fair Board's performance the kids were then led to the 34 stations available that covered various aspects of agriculture. A large horn would sound every few minutes to send all the students to their next station.
Along with dirt the other main commodity of agriculture is obviously water and there was a station on “Water — Every drop counts.”
There was also the station on the “Pizza Story,” how pizza is made. And Circle J-norris Ranch lead teacher Amanda Driver was at a station giving a presentation on Circle J and SCICON. During the presentation she let kids touch a snake.
And there was Hogan giving his presentation on what it once took to go hunting which at one time including the history of muzzle loading rifles. “It took a lot of work,” Hogan told the students. “They took a lot of time to make it shoot.”
Hogan then asked the students what happens if the hunter misses the shot. “They're going to get hungry,” one student replied. Hogan then said, “So I better know how to shoot or I'm not going to eat.”
“Later on people tried to make it faster,” said Hogan about the process of loading weapon for hunting, which eventually led to lever action rifle that could fire 7 shots and the six shooter revolver, he said.
All of the 34 stations are put on by Porterville Unified School District and Summit Collegiate high school students. “This is a day the second graders look forward to all year,” Wickersham said.
What FFA is about is covered at Farm Day along with teaching the kids about farm animals and other areas such as the growing of fruits and vegetables. “There's a lot of fruits and vegetables stations,” Wickersham said.
There was a station in which the kids were shown how to make butter and then could taste the butter they made. Another station showed kids how one would rope a steer or calf.
Along with butter there was a chance for the kids to partake in other agricultural products such as oranges and orange juice, popcorn at the corn station and honey.
There were stations on flowers and plants including one station “What Makes Plants Grow.” There were stations on how something is grown in general at the germination and seeds stations.
There were also plenty of stations in the large livestock area at the fair, including stations on goats and sheep and a number of stations on beef, including what kind of beef each part of the cattle provides and beef by products. There was a station on animal identification as well.