It was a day filled with all things agriculture, from learning about animal care to touring farm machinery, planting some seeds to watching a demonstration of polo.
Students at Cloverland Elementary School had the opportunity to immerse themselves in the ag lifestyle on Friday, April 4 with the annual Ag Day celebration observed on campus.
Leah Carl, a fourth grade teacher at Cloverland was a co-coordinator for Ag Day this year, working with colleague Laura-Kaye Norman, an upper grade SDC teacher at Cloverland.
“The goal behind Ag Day is really to, one, draw community together and two, introduce all of our students at our school to possible job opportunities in their community,” Carl said. “A lot of our students have never even seen a cow or a horse before, which might be surprising because we’re in Oakdale … we want to introduce our students to what the agricultural community has to offer them.”
Representatives of 4-H, FFA, numerous local ag-related businesses and more were on hand for the day, with nearly three dozen stations set up inside and outside the school.
There are too many presenters for students to see them all, added Carl, but the various grade levels do get to rotate to a number of stations during the morning program. What a third grader saw this year, for example, they won’t see as a fourth grader, as they try to make sure students get to see different presenters each year.
“So, students in third grade who are getting to see the rancher’s life, and learn about that, in fourth grade they’re going to get to do roping and when they go to fifth grade, they’ll get to see ConAgra’s presentation,” Carl explained.
The vibe was good on the elementary campus on Friday, with smiles all around.
“Everybody I’ve talked to so far, it seems they’re enjoying it, it’s going well,” Carl said. “The presenters are just giving it their everything; they are so good with the kids and they have put in so much work, bringing their animals here and all that, it’s really quite incredible.”
Rebecca O’Ferrall and daughter Augusta O’Ferrall, with the Oakdale Polo Club, brought their 25-year-old horse Montera with them on Friday to demonstrate the game of polo. As mom Rebecca explained the finer parts of the game, Augusta and Montera provided the visuals.
Elsewhere, third grade student Jake Wylie of Cloverland was at the Sierra 4-H table, along with eighth grader Logan VanderVeen of Oakdale Junior High School, showcasing their rabbits.
“It’s just fun to show people rabbits,” Jake said, adding that he did show them at the fair last year.
Logan said he was glad to be part of the program at Cloverland for Ag Day.
“It’s just cool to tell the kids about 4-H and what we do with the animals,” said the third year 4-H member. “I like being able to learn how to take care of animals. I’m an officer for the club; I’m the reporter so I get to spread knowledge about 4-H.”
Oakdale High School junior, FFA member Claire Golden was showing some pigs, explaining all about them to the students.
“I just like talking about how I’ve been raising them for fair and explaining FFA and everything,” Golden said, adding that all her siblings have shown animals at the fair and she is following in their footsteps.
She had a pair of pigs with her in the makeshift pen on Friday and she said they were being very cooperative, enjoying the attention from students.
“I love them,” Golden said of her pigs. “These are some pretty good ones.”
