Published Saturday, June 28, 2008 – Students experience farm l= ife during ‘Farm Day’, by Julie Layne, denpubs@denpubs

P= ublished Saturday, June 28, 2008 – Students experience farm life during ‘= ;Farm Day’, by Julie Layne, denpubs@= denpubs.com - North Countryman

C= HAZY - Clinton County may be rural farm country, = but many local youths have few chances to actually experience it. William H. Miner Agricultural Rese= arch Institute’s “Farm Days for Fifth Graders” aims to change that.

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F= irst established in 1982, the event allows fifth-graders from schools throughout= Clinton County to visit the working dairy = farm, equine, and research center to learn more about modern agriculture.

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&= #8220;It’s our opportunity to reach out to the community and young people in schools,&= #8221; explained Wanda Emerich, the Institute’s dairy outreach coordinator. “It’s also an opportun= ity for our college interns to learn how to present information.”

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T= his year, close to 400 students from Chazy, Rouses Point, Northern Adirondack, Momot and Cumberland Head elementary schools visit= ed the institute over three days during the first week of June. While there, they visited stations spread throughout the farm focusing on different aspects of farm life: horse behavior and care, field equipment, calves, feeding, the dairy barn, histor= y, and the ever popular fistulated cow.

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A= t the calf session, students gathered around a two-day-old calf as intern Annie Kimmerlein explained calves live in individual hutches to help protect them from disease until they graduate to the “kindergarten” pen where they learn to live as part of a herd.

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S= tudents then got an opportunity to try out the hutches themselves, giggling as they piled in one after another.

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M= eanwhile, in the main dairy barn another group of students waited with some apprehens= ion for their chance to visit the “fistulated” cow. The cow, which is used for nutriti= onal studies, has a permanent hole in its side allowing access to the rumen.

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A= fter a discussion of how a cow’s four stomachs work, the students donned arm-length plastic gloves and warily reached inside the cow to feel for themselves.

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&= #8220;It was cool,” exclaimed Brandon Honan of the hands-on experience. “If you put your hand all th= e way in and up you could feel the rumen wall – the pulse also.”=

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N= AC teacher Jamie Billiter was pleased to see the curiosity her students had ab= out the farm and its livestock. &= #8220;A lot of the kids have not been exposed to agriculture, cows and horses,̶= 1; she explained.

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&= #8220;Most kids just think about milk, not the whole dairy process,” agreed fell= ow NAC teacher Dennis LaBarge. “[Miner Institute] educates us how much m= ore there is to a dairy system.”

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L= aBarge added the historical look back at the work of William H. Miner also tied in nicely with their social studies curriculum.

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&= #8220;Students are surprised,” he said. “They say, ‘He died when? And his money is still here?”

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E= merich hopes students will go home realizing what a big part agriculture plays in = our local industry and economy.

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&= #8220;There are a lot of interesting jobs on farms,” she concluded.