Farm Connections was developed by Durham Region's farmers to increase agricultural awareness amongst children and drew a total of 1,200 students over three days. Now in its third year, the educational caravan consists of eight stations showcasing various aspects of farming including sheep, goats, cattle, pigs, chickens, dairy, vegetables, and topsoil.
"Which vegetable do we eat the flower of?" asks a farmer volunteer at the vegetable station. She displays a broccoli plant and then asks how many children like broccoli. Four hands shoot up in the air.
"Can someone find a vegetable with seeds that we eat?" she asks.
"Sunflowers," says an excited little voice.
"How many veggies should we eat a day?" says the volunteer. "Five to ten," several voices respond in unison.
The class of 20 from Sunderland Public School, shepherded by teacher Marilyn Huntley, came to Farm Connections because she said it fits in with their urban and rural communities class.
"Despite the fact we live in the north, the minority of kids come from farms. When I was growing up in Sunderland, most of us were from farms. Only five of the 20 children I've brought today are from farms," says Ms. Huntley, as her entourage settles down at the sheep display station. All of them wear badges with green ribbons. Some sheep with several lambs stand passively in two hay-filled pens, alongside a table piled high with lamb fleece.
Rebecca Parker, a sheep farmer who has a farm with 100 ewes, tells the children that livestock farming is a 365-day-per-year job. She carries a one-month old lamb with black markings in her arms, like a baby.
"What happens if a ewe has more than two lambs at once? She's only got two teats to feed them," says Ms. Parker. She holds up a large pop bottle with a plastic nipple placed on top and a special baby formula inside.
"A lamb will drink milk for about a month. Adult sheep drink water, eat oats, corn and hay," she explains.
She shows the children a number on the lamb's ear and tells the children it's there so the lamb can be identified if he goes missing. She then shows them a shearing tool and explains that excessive fleece can make a sheep hot in the summer, so it can be sheared and used in a variety of ways. A bell goes off, indicating it's time for the children to move on to their next station.
A table in the foyer is loaded with home-made sandwiches and desserts, hosted by the Women's Institute. Jenny Knox, owner of Knox Pumpkin Farms near Courtice, is greeting people there. One of the people who started Farm Connections in 2006, she says the organization's website will become a resource for educators who include agriculture in their teaching.
"We host quite a few school tours at our farm, and we see several kids who come in and say 'look at the goat' when they're looking at a sheep. Grade 3 is chosen for our educational thrust because it has the strongest agricultural component in its curriculum," says Ms. Knox.
See www.durhamfarmconnections.ca for more information.
