Telfair County Elementary School Students Learn About Agriculture at 20th Annual Farm Day

MCRAE, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Did you know that brush you used this morning to brush your hair might have been made with pig hair?

That’s just one of the things students at Telfair County Elementary School learned at the 20th annual Farm Day on the school’s campus Friday.

“It started at another facility and it kind of outgrew that,” says Brett Bland, Future Farmers of America teacher at Telfair County High School.  “So, we moved it here to the school where we could have a hands-on experience for all the kids”

Thanks to the Telfair County Farm Bureau, Telfair County High School FFA and a few local public safety organizations, more than 800 students learned about dairy, cotton, cattle, poultry, forestry and more through various exhibits set up all over the campus.

“I could remember being out here a few years ago,” says Zackery Rothwell, a Telfair County High School junior who volunteered with the FFA at the event.  “I was out here in the same shoes and just amazed by the different animals they had and stuff.”

The purpose of Farm Day is to teach kids the importance of agriculture—especially in rural areas like Telfair County.

“They don’t realize the economic impact yet,” says Bland.  “Of course, they’re a little young to understand that, but there’s probably 24 million plus jobs in the country that are ag-related, and it’s just a major part of our lives that’s really behind the scenes.”

Neal Stanley, president of the Telfair County Farm Bureau, says it makes him happy to help teach the kids something they might not learn about anywhere else.

“This gives them an opportunity to know a little bit about what bacon comes from, what hamburgers come from, what milk comes from,” says Stanley.  “It gives them a little bit of insight on it, and maybe they’ll grow up and consider a career in agriculture.”

According to the Georgia Farm Bureau, agriculture has a $68 million annual impact on the state, and nearly one in seven Georgians has an ag-related job.