“This is mainly student organized,” said Noah Phillips, the agricultural educator at the school.

“All of the students set up their own individual station, either a project they’ve done that really stuck with them, or one of their hobbies outside school, or even something like an after school job they brought here,” he said.

“They spent the last couple weeks preparing a station and a poster and props to go along with it to help explain what they do. And yeah, and then I had two of my officers that really stepped up and helped me plan most of it. So they drew out the map, organized who was going to be here and when, and how they’re going to be divided into groups, and then the community aspect tonight as well,” he added.

As Jillian Koenig, who helped organize the event with Desyrae Neidig, was describing what was going on, a girl walked by with a chicken, just one of the animals there.

Students look over a variety of tractors during the Ag Day events at Montoursville High School. Students got to be exposed to a number of different career ideas as well as explanations of what they could learn if they take agricultural classes in high school. DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

“Basically the kids are running through stations and they’re all different,” Koenig said.

“We have stations with animals-so more living things-and then we have stations that are more about engines. So from point A to point B, we have everything that kids can learn about that are agriculturally related,” Koenig said.

We have plants set up in the greenhouse and we have someone talking about those. We’ve got fishing. We have a blacksmith who came,” Neidig said.

There were also outdoor vendors, like a local lavender farm and a farm equipment sales group. There was a blacksmith and a station about hunting and trapping as well as a station manned by representatives of the state’s Game Commission.

“We’ve got every aspect of agriculture-we’ve hit everything,” she added.

At one station, students could pin a tail on a paper donkey while learning facts about donkeys. Another station had three ducks that had been raised as a project and again the kids could learn about ducks from FFA students, Harley Chamberlain and Kilynn Hummer.

Phillips pointed out the benefits of an event like this in educating younger children about where their food comes from.

“Whether or not they’re going to be involved in agriculture when they get older, they should definitely know how their food gets to their plate and of course animal welfare…making sure that animals are raised humanely,” he said.

“And what all the work is that goes into the industry because there’s only two percent of Americans that are involved in production agriculture, like growing your bee cows, dairy cows and corn and stuff like that. But, 43 percent of Americans are involved in agribusiness, whether that’s selling the product or marketing the product or being indirectly or directly involved with the entire industry,” he said.

At a time when the smaller family farms are struggling, Neidig and Koenig stressed the importance of agriculture.

“I just think agriculture is important. It teaches you basically life skills. I feel like agriculture and FFA can teach you more than like a normal classroom. It’s just a better opportunity to learn more,” Koenig said.

“There’s a lot of the aspects of English, chemistry and normal sciences that you can learn with agriculture as well,” she added.

“A lot of people don’t think that agriculture is more than farming,” Neidig said.

They both see how smaller, family farms and agribusiness are needed, but Neidig added, “Small farms are closing and that needs to be brought back up and grow.”

And, if someone doesn’t want to own a farm, there’s always a home garden, the girls noted.

“It’s natural food that you’re growing and if you’re using that for your family, or if you’re selling that…you’re giving everybody a chance,” Koenig said.

“I feel like it’s important to grow your own food so you know where it’s coming from and you know it’s not going through these bad processing plants,” she said.

“It’s clean and plus you will learn a lot. I would know, I thought planting-oh you just dig a hole and you put the plant in it, but that is not it at all. It’s very interesting and you can learn a lot,” Neidig said.