The sixteenth annual 4th grade Ag Fair was held on March 18th at the Bureau County Fairgrounds. This year the Ag fair was attended by 22 classes composed of almost 400 students and approximately 42 adults and teachers. The 22 classes were divided between a morning and an afternoon session. The students visited 14 different sessions were they had a nine minute mini lesson on agriculture.
This year's sessions were as follows:
1 - Water Jeopardy provided by the Bureau County Soil and Water
2 -Pork provided by the Bureau County Pork Producers
3 -Seed Science and Technology provided by Pioneer Hybrids
4 -Dairy provided by Tim Harris and the Midwest Dairy Council
5- Farm Safety provided by the University of Illinois Extension
6 -Corn provided by the Corn Growers Association
7- Beef provided by the Bureau County Cattlemen's Association
8- Soybeans provided by the Illinois Soybean Association
9 -Wheat provided by Marshall-Putnam Ag in the Classroom
10 -Embryology provided by William and Rob Sharkey
11 -GPS Technology provided by Ag View FS
12 -Machinery provided Larry Magnuson and Dan Rabe
13 -Small animals consisting of (Rabbits, Chickens, Donkey, Boer Goat Doe and Kids, Miniature Horse and foal, Market Hog, a bucket calf and a Ewe and lambs)
14- Large Animals consisting of (Draft Horse, Holstein Cow, Alpaca and a Quarter Horse)

The students rotated every 9 minutes until they had visited each learning center. After the educational session, the teachers were provided with tubs, which included lessons for the classroom and goodie bags for the students to take home. The bags contained fun activities, free goodies and lessons from each of the sessions.
A big thank you goes out to all of our 80 volunteers and sponsors who helped make this year's Ag Fair a great success. This volunteer based program allows us to provide valuable agriculture lessons to every 4th grader within the county.