By Robin Jedlicka - bio | email
BERRIEN COUNTY, GA (WALB) - It was a day of learning Berrien County's Pre-K students will never forget.
On Friday, Berrien High School's FFA program sponsored Farm Day, giving students the chance to experience agriculture for themselves. With Agriculture being the number one industry in Berrien County, the FFA hopes events like Farm Day encourage students to pursue careers in that field.
The visual aids spanned far beyond the usual poster board. These students got to handle farm animals, ride horses, and even witness a pregnant cow receiving a sonogram.
"He was checking the cow to see if she had a baby," explains Pre-K student Travis Staley. "I learned a lot about animals."
Students even learned about greenhouses and renewable energy sources...not bad for Pre-K.
Tim Meeks, Berrien High School's Agriculture Department Head, explains the advanced learning opportunities, saying their purpose is "to help our students kind of be ahead of the curve later on when they graduate from college and school and are ready to go out into the work force."
Officials say agriculture is one of the few recession-proof career fields. Instilling interest at a young age could ignite the next generation of farmers and scientists.
"We want to plant this seed early on and hope to cultivate that seed within these kids as they come through the high school FFA program," says Meeks. "When they go to college, they'll be ready to go to the College of Agriculture, and enter that work force later on."
With the impact agriculture has on Berrien County, the students may get exciting opportunities in their own hometown.
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