Menifee County, with its rural charm and population of 6200, might seem like a place where everyone knows where their food comes from. However, the reality is different. In 2011, according to the Ag Daily, 72% of the United States of America's population knew nothing or a little bit about farming and ranching.  These statistics underscore the urgent need for Ag education, even in rural counties like ours. The importance of Ag education cannot be overstated, but it is a vital part of our country's future.  

Menifee County has a vast history of Agriculture Field Day for the county, stories of tobacco plots and wagon rides, and hundreds of people are in attendance to see the new tobacco varieties.  The field day would end with a soup and bean dinner, cornbread, and many door prizes. In recent years, field day topics have centered around forages and animal production.  For 2024, a new version of Field Day was adopted.  There were two sections: in the morning, a youth field day for 3^rd-grade students, and that evening, a public field day.  Partners for the 2024 Field Day were Menifee FFA, Farm Bureau, Local Farms, KY Cancer Center, UK Specialist, SNAP Assistant, and many local businesses.  

The 3rd grade field day was a joint effort by Menifee FFA and Menifee 4-H. They hosted 80 3rd graders who participated in 9 rotations, each focusing on a different animal species found in Menifee County. The FFA teams delivered informative presentations for each species.  Students gave facts about each species and what items humans received from those animals.  Partners for Rural Development liaisons further enriched the experience by providing an Agriculture Literacy book for each 3^rd grader.  

The evening brought out 62 Menifee Farmers and local residents to learn how to read a hay testing report, fix and manage creek erosion, move water away from barns, and make Mother Nature work for you.  Before the event, hay samples were taken from the farm.  Attendees could see the difference in haylage and dry hay and the differences in the nutritional value of each feed.  Attendees understood the force and amount of water from a Menifee hillside and how managing this force can be understood.  To wrap up the evening, the presentation “Work Smarter, not Harder, in Feeding Animals” was presented to attendees.  Attendees worked through issues the host farm had and ways to prevent or fix these issues.  

Field day is not just a day of learning, but a day of experiencing. Menifee Beef Producers have listened to these talks in a classroom setting many times. However, field day allows farmers to be physically on a farm and see these issues firsthand, which in turn helps them visualize how they can fix their problems on their farms. This hands-on learning is not just informative, but transformative.  

All 3rd graders who attended learned at least one interesting fact about farm animals. Favorites were feeling the goats eating out of their hands and the chickens.  Facts learned were that there are different breeds of animals as well as how we tell the age of some of the animals by their teeth. This kind of hands-on learning for agricultural education illuminates the experience for everyone involved, making them feel the value of their involvement in agriculture.