Area students get a taste of farm life

Although the spring snow and rain kept the kids from going outside to look at larger livestock, hundreds of area students showed up Thursday for the annual Farm Days.

They spent the day touring dozens of displays inside the exhibit hall at Fuji Park, and petting smaller animals like rabbits, tortoises and a couple of goats.

"They're alpine goats," explained their owner Megan Forman of Carson City's Merry Milkers Dairy 4-H Club. "That means they're a dairy goat so they produce milk for cheese, ice cream and even stuff you can't eat, like soap."

The annual two-day presentation is sponsored by the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension.

"It's to get these urban kids to understand more about farming and ranching in Nevada and how it affects the environment and how the environment affects farming and ranching," said Sandy Wallin, who directs 4-H and youth programs. "We have so much agriculture in Nevada. So many people don't understand that. They think of Nevada as Reno and Las Vegas."

Margie Evans from the Clear Creek Watershed Council used a model farm to demonstrate how farmers will plant a buffer to act as a filter system for the water supply. She sprayed water onto a dirt field and showed how the grass absorbed most of the dirt before the water dripped into the stream below.

"The farmer is doing a very good thing by placing a buffer there," she said.

Ben Buchanan, 7, a first-grader at Sutro Elementary School in Dayton, appreciated it.

"I like when it rains it absorbs muddy water so it is clean water so we don't have to drink muddy water," he said.

Other booths explained the sources of meat and honey, and had weaving and quilting demonstrations.

Joel Ibarra, 7, most liked the display from the Nevada State Museum that showcased skulls of different animals, as well as preserved specimens of creatures indigenous to the Silver State.

His favorite was the bat.

"They fly," he said. "I want to fly. I like the rattlesnake, too."

Farm Days continues with school-sponsored field trips today at Fuji Park.