The Enid News and Eagle, Enid, OK

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September 5, 2008

County fair exhibit is popular, educational

By Cass Rains Staff Writer

Groups of schoolchildren got a firsthand look at farming Thursday at Garfield County Fair.

Classes trooped through the Farmer for a Day exhibit in 30-minute intervals while picking up facts about agriculture and seeing animals up close.

The exhibit at the fair, which runs until Saturday at Chisholm Trail Expo Center, is giving children an opportunity to interact with agriculture and pose a lot of questions.

Loud “whoas” couldn’t be suppressed as children entered the exhibit to meet a pair of goats. They also saw calves, a rooster, chickens, sheep and a pair of piglets. The groups also interacted with grains, milked simulated cows and picked up facts they’re sure to wow their parents with — such as marshmallows made from hooves.

After a chorus “eews” died down, instructor Barbara Ball said, “Now every time you eat a marshmallow you know where it comes from.”

Ball said the children visiting the exhibit this year, from pre-schoolers to second-graders, are learning about agriculture and what it produces that children see or use in their daily lives.

“It teaches them a lot about agriculture,” Ball said. “We focus on thing we use around the house and come from each animal.”

As children petted a piglet, Ball gave examples of what can be produced from pigs, such as soaps, tires, cosmetics, candles, shampoo, cortisone cream, chalk and linoleum.

While most children listened in-tently, some still found time to “oink” as Ball continued with the lesson.

Ball said the exhibit is for children to see animals used in agriculture and not necessarily on display at zoos.

“Some of them have never seen them (farm animals) before,” she said.

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