The National Children’s Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety reported in 2016 that every day about 33 children are injured in agriculture-related accidents and every three days, a child dies in an agriculture-related incident.   Among household youth on farms, injury rates increased in 2014 for youth 10-19 years.  From 2003 to 2010, among workers younger than 16 years, the number of worker fatalities in agriculture were consistently higher than in all non-agricultural industries combined.     

The Spencer County Cooperative Extension Service and the Family Resource Center, along with the Principals, Counselors from the two elementary schools, saw the need to continue Ag Day because of the statistical information above.   Several community partners were sought out to make this event a reality.  The Spencer County Farm Bureau provided lunch for all of the booths and volunteers.   Spencer County FFA students served as hosts for each of the classrooms, with over 23 students this year along with their advisor.  The Spencer County Board of Education provided buses for Spencer County Elementary to get to the field at Taylorsville Elementary for the event.  Taylorsville Elementary Volunteer Coordinator and school volunteers assisted with various locations during the event, including the water stations and lunch.  

Spencer County Ag Day was another huge success in the fall of 2018.  All of the elementary age students enrolled in Spencer County Schools, grades kindergarten to fifth, participated in this event reaching nearly 1,400 students with 60 plus volunteers assisting.   

The participants in the event included:  local 4-H youth participated with their swine, rabbit, poultry and country ham projects, as well as horses, the Soybean Board, corps of engineers, and the Farm Bureau Women’s Group.  This year the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment Student Ambassadors had two booths talking about college opportunities with all of the elementary students. 

The youth of Spencer County not only learned about local agriculture, but also safety.  It is the goal of the Spencer County Cooperative Extension Office that Spencer County students will not be included in the statistics above.  All county agents worked together getting the booth participants and collaborated with the local school system to plan the event.  The 4-H Youth Development Agent secured funding through Spencer County Farm Bureau to provide lunch, healthy snacks, and waters for all volunteers, as well as working with the local FFA chapter to supply group leaders for the event.   The Family and Consumer Science and Agriculture Agents took care of all of the food for the day.  This is definitely a group effort by the staff of the Spencer County Extension Office!