Farm Bureau’s Ag Days Brings the Farm to Nearly 5,000 City Kids
Story By Tim Tesconi
Photographs by Lisa Bauer, Katie Fonsen & Lex McCorvey

Santa Rosa dairy rancher Doug Beretta, who has been at Ag Days for most of the 30 years it has been held, patiently answered questions from hundreds of kids about his Jersey and Holstein calves. What do they eat? Why do they have tags in their ears?

One student asked if Beretta’s doe-eyed Jersey calf was a camel. One kid thought it was a deer.

Questions like that, said Beretta, are the reason that Sonoma County Farm Bureau works so hard to stage Ag Days, a spring tradition held March 4- 5 at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds. This year’s Ag Days attracted nearly 5,000 students, 1,000 parents and 300 teachers to the two-day event.

Beretta said Ag Days is a way to teach school children about the cows and sheep, wine grapes and apples that are on the farms and ranches in Sonoma County.

“Today, most of the children in Sonoma County schools are generations removed from the farm. It’s important that they know that agriculture plays a vital role in Sonoma County’s economy and way-of-life,” said Beretta, a director and past president of Sonoma County Farm Bureau.

Beretta believes it’s important for the agricultural industry to educate the next generation of voters about the farms and ranches that generate more than $3 billion in revenue and cover more than 500,000 of the county’s one million acres.

“Ag Days provides an experience every kid should have growing up in Sonoma County,” said Beretta, a fourth generation Sonoma County rancher. “Since most kids don’t live on farms anymore, it’s up to us to provide that agricultural experience.”

Each year, Ag Days brings a taste of farm life to town so thousands of school children can learn more about the pastures, orchards and vineyards that unfold where city streets end.

“Ag Days is a wonderful opportunity for my second graders to see first hand all of the things that our local farms offer to consumers,” said Linda Szczech, a teacher at St. Rose Catholic School in Santa Rosa. “The students are always surprised that our area produces more than wine grapes. Ag Days really opens their eyes to what farmers do and provide.”

Carla Peterson, a teacher at Pacific Christian Academy in Graton, has been bringing her students to Ag Days for many years. Her students also compete in the Ag Days Contests. This year Peterson’s students won three of the six grand prize awards.

“It’s so very important for students to actually see, touch, hear, taste, and smell agriculture,” said Peterson. “Ag Days gives students an opportunity to “fully live and experience” agriculture for a day. It is one thing to learn about agriculture in the classroom, but the true appreciation and understanding comes from spending a day at Ag Days.”

For kids, Ag Days offered the chance to learn a range of farm facts including the many by-products made from cattle and that horses wear shoes too.

“I love Ag Days because you get to pet chicks, cows, horses, goats and baby geese. My favorite part was seeing all the amazing animals. I learned that cows make jelly, ice cream and butter. I also learned that horses have different sizes of feet,” said Kylee Hall, a student at Biella Elementary School in Santa Rosa.

Larry Bertolini, owner of Western Farm Center, was at Ag Days with a bunch of baby chicks, duckling and goslings. Larry has been an exhibitor at Ag Days for the last 30 years, taking great delight in providing an educational experience for students in Sonoma County schools.

“We do it for the kids. We want to give kids the experience we had growing up on farms,” said Larry, who is 83 and a native and lifelong resident of Santa Rosa.

There were farm animal exhibits, sheep shearing demonstrations, a hay maze, tractors and many other exhibits and demonstrations related to the county’s farming industry and the environment. New this year, were miniature Sundog Cattle owned by Darlene Evans of Petaluma.

Kids munched on Pink Lady apples and sampled cheese and milk produced by Sonoma County cows. “Ag Days is a unique opportunity where we can educate children, parents and teachers all together about the importance of agriculture to their lives and to the community,” said Lex McCorvey, executive director of Sonoma County Farm Bureau.

Ag Days encourages kids to see, touch, taste and smell agriculture, whether it’s squeezing wool or cuddling a piglet. The only admonition for kids is “please touch the animals.”

“It’s just so great to watch the kids touching calves, climbing hay bales and getting on tractors without someone screaming at them to get off or don’t touch. We encourage touching because that’s the kind of experience we had as children growing up on a ranch. It’s a way for kids to connect with agriculture and natural environment,” said Bodega cattle rancher Walt Ryan, chairman of Farm Bureau’s Agriculture Education Committee. Farm Bureau strives to make the exhibits interesting and interactive.

Enid Pickett, a kindergarten teacher at Waldo Rohnert Elementary School in Rohnert Park, said the field trip to Ag Days is part of her educational unit on farms and food. She said every grade at Waldo Rohnert has its own garden plot where the students grow all kinds of produce including sunflowers and pumpkins.

Ag Days has grown into a major event to represent the many facets of Sonoma County agriculture. Farm Bureau sponsors Ag Days but many agriculture-related groups and individual ranchers support the event. Ranchers like Cheryl LaFranchi, Kerry Williams, Nancy Barlas, the Ray Crawford Family and Pat Prather bring livestock ranging from Boer goats to draft horses.

Horse trainer Raye Lochert was the announcer at a horse demonstraton showing what kids can do with horses. It was a way for kids to show other kids about the skills that can be learned at local stables.

In addition to the Ag Days exhibits and demonstrations, Farm Bureau also sponsors a number of contests aimed at making children think about the source of their food and fiber. This year the theme of the contests was “Family Farms Keep Things Growing.”

Hundreds of school children entered the contests, which included categories for the best bookmark, poster, essay, scarecrow, mural and farm photograph. The winners in the various contests were recognized at Farm Bureau’s Ag Days Awards Dinner on March 24. There were more than 650 guests at the Ag Days Dinner where parents, teachers, principals and agriculture leaders came together to recognize the accomplishments of the students who were winners in the Ag Days contests.

Sue Bonzell of KZST Radio was the mistress of ceremonies. Awards were presented by Carl Wong, superintendent of the Sonoma County Office of Education, Steve Herrington, superintendent of the Windsor Unified School district, and Healdsburg city councilman Mike McGuire, candidate for the 4th district seat on the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors.

Read THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Ag Days Article <click here>

2010 Ag Days Highlights

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