By Joaquin Aguilar-Flores, KFCS
Every fourth grader in the Klamath Basin, year after year, benefits from a fulfilling field trip to the Farm Expo held at the Klamath County Fairgrounds during the month of February.
Put together by the Klamath County Farm Bureau and Klamath County Cattlewomen, a tradition since 1970’s, has persevered for fourth graders across Klamath County, reaching over 900 fourth graders this year.
“It is the most important field trip for these kids to come and learn anything about agriculture,” Sue Gallagher, Farm Expo committee chair and Klamath County Cattlewomen President, said. “Every booth is passionate about their lifestyle, so the kids have a glimmer that agriculture is not the bad guy … we take care of our land, animals.”
Gallagher has been a part of the expo since 1989, when she ran a beef booth.
She was tasked to organize fourth graders in the Klamath Basin to partake in the Farm Expo Feb. 21-22, splitting students into four different time slots.
The event invites an abundance of local farmers, ranchers, dairymen and Future Farmers of America groups involved in agriculture and share a presentation for students. Fourth graders learned about beef cows, dairy cows, sheep, pigs, goats, horses, honeybees, hay, mint, water, master gardeners, potatoes, grains and forestry.
The event has seen its share of change since it was first established, formally holding a booth which had an emu present, back when emu meat was popular in the area, Gallagher said. The booth explained the benefits of emu oil, along with a sugar beet booth.
“Many of the FFA students remember coming as fourth graders and now are here,” Gallagher said. “It does evolve if someone gets to where they can’t do it anymore, we find another product grown in the area to come. Otherwise, I do not know what our future holds; there is a lot of bad information out there about agriculture.”
Fourth graders in Lakeview, Bly, Tulelake and Gilchrist also visited the expo.
Roosevelt Elementary School fourth grade instructor, Jay Knodel, has attended the Farm Expo for over a decade with his students. Knodel makes sure his students take something home with them after the field trip.
“I have them make a brochure once they get back to class and write down all the stations. There are six different parts of the brochure, front and back and they choose the top three stations they liked,” Knodel said. “They write a summary about their experience here and draw and color pictures to reflect what it is all about.”
Talk about Trees, Oregon
Klamath Union High School senior Melanie Potter was present at the Farm Expo as she volunteered for Talk about Trees, Oregon.
Potter contacted Talk about Trees Klamath Falls facilitator, Eva Jones, about the possibility of volunteering for the program. Potter is running for the Miss Klamath County Pageant and as part of community service hours required, reached out to Jones to help give a presentation at the Farm Expo.
“I watched her lead the lessons yesterday and took pieces from that and that is what I took to teach and share with the students today,” Potter said. “It has been great to teach the kids something new. After high school, I want to go into audiology but I have always been interested in the environment.”
