Holmes SWCD keeps Farm Tour fun, educational
Area fifth-graders were invited to try their hand at drilling holes that are used to test soil and water samples.
Sometimes the Tom Graham 5th Grade Farm Tour can be extremely educational.
At other times it can be downright fun.
The fifth-grade students from West Holmes Schools including Millersburg, Killbuck and Lakeville, along with students from Holmesville Elementary, visited Springhill Farm for the annual West Holmes Schools event on Tuesday, Sept. 27.
In doing so, they got plenty of both aspects of the tour including a first for the event.
“We always want to try to come up with new ways to educate and entertain, so we added a hay wagon ride to this particular tour,” said Trevor Berger, Holmes Soil & Water Conservation District program director. “I think it added a very memorable moment for the kids.”
The students did indeed relish the idea of rolling along the vast wooded hills of the farm, many of them chattering about it afterward.
However, there were plenty of educational opportunities as well.
Bryan Eyerly, a member of the New Pittsburgh Large Animal Clinic, was on hand to present a session on biosecurity, a new venture for the farm tour that hasn’t been explored before.
Eyerly, who said he doesn’t get many opportunities to talk to youngsters, said he enjoyed the challenge of creating a presentation that was both informative and fun to keep the kids connected.
He did so by having them all don surgical gloves, putting oil on their hands and passing along germs, which in this case was copious amounts of glitter.
“My focus was to share how diseases are spread on farms in a way they could understand,” Eyerly said. “The hope is that they took an understanding of the importance of in everything we do, we should try to be more conscientious of spreading disease in places like the farm or the fair.”
Eyerly said his background as a large animal veterinarian focuses on dairy cattle, where they have routine herd health plans where they visit farms to talk about health issues.
Dealing with emergencies and working with other large animals goes beyond the dairy herds, and Eyerly said it was fun seeing the lights go on in the students’ eyes as he spoke about different aspects of his job and biosecurity on the farm.
Not far away, Marshall Overholt was teaching kids about the dairy farming aspect of raising large heads of dairy cattle. Students learned about the importance of water in a cow’s diet, and for many of them, it was the first time venturing on to a farm.
John Lorson, Wayne County SWCD program director, returned to his roots in presenting the wildlife stage. Lorson said it was a thrill to return to the farm tour, where he spent a great many years as part of the presentation crew.
Longtime forester and retired teacher Dave Woodring came back to present the forestry stop in the rotation, and Darby Sherman, Holmes SWCD, and Jacob Lotz, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, joined the West Holmes FFA members to talk soil with the kids.
The safety stop was once again presented by the West Holmes FFA members, who used watermelons, a heifer and the PTO of a tractor to talk about safety on the farm.
The students had plenty of opportunities to take notes and glean information they can use in crafting their essays. Students can pick out any topic on the tour and write about it. Their teachers will submit the top essays, which will then go to an SWCD committee that will determine the winning trio, which will be presented at the annual SWCD banquet later this fall.
Fifth-grader Jenna Mast has grown up on a farm, so she was one of a few who were familiar with what farming entails coming into the tour.
“I learned that germs can spread really quickly from one organism to another,” Mast said, referencing her class’ stop with Eyerly. “It was really fun to get outside and learn in a new way.”
Keith Kaster said his favorite moment by far was climbing on to the tractor-driven hay wagon and tooling around the farm to explore the lay of the land. He said he learned plenty he didn’t know before and was glad he had the chance to visit the farm.
Braxton Sinnett said the hay ride was definitely a highlight. Having never been on a farm before, the experience was new with plenty of adventures to experience.
Abigail Butler said in writing the essay for the contest, she hopes to focus her attention on one particular aspect of the tour rather than the overall farm experience.
“I’m going to think really hard about what I want to write about,” Butler said. “There was so much to hear and learn. I’m not even sure where to start yet.”
A lot to learn is exactly what the SWCD team hopes to present in an event that continues to provide opportunities for youngsters who have never been on the farm with a chance to experience farm living and conservation practices.