promote animal agriculture
A spurt of unseasonably cold, rainy weather didn’t deter busloads of children, along with teachers, parents and other adult guests, from attending the 2003 Farm Animal Days, April 9-11, at N.C. State University. The event was held at the newly dedicated Beef Education Unit at the university’s Lake Wheeler Road Field Laboratory in Raleigh. There the preschool and elementary school-age children got hands-on introductions to horses, goats, dairy cattle, beef cattle, sheep, swine and rabbits, as well as chickens, turkeys and ducks. At the same time they had opportunities to learn about the animals’ growth rates, breeding cycles, value to the state’s economy and other fascinating facts — such as that domestic rabbits are born hairless, while wild bunnies are born with fur and can leave home as soon as three weeks after birth.
A mare and her foal were a popular attraction, as were a Boer goat and her twin offspring. A mixed-breed spotted piglet was particularly rambunctious, as if taking his cue to entertain the crowd. Three sheep were on display — one fully coated, one half shorn and one fully shorn — to teach youngsters where wool comes from. Across the way, children watched as a dairy cow was milked; their subsequent questions led to a quick lesson about pasteurization.
In the show arena of the new facility, a junior Will Rogers lassoed a hay bale steer, while others eagerly waited their turns with the rope. Others enjoyed free ice cream made by the Food Science Department and available to the visitors near the hand-washing station.
Farm
Animal Days is coordinated by Dr. Jeannette Moore, Department
of Animal Science for N.C.
Cooperative Extension, and by Ken Snyder,
superintendent of the Lake Wheeler Road Field Laboratories, for
N.C.
Agricultural Research Service. The purpose is to promote
and
share
good news about animal agriculture and to give the university
a chance to meet the public. It is sponsored by the N.C. Agricultural
Research
Service, the N.C. Farm Bureau and the departments of Animal Science,
Poultry
Science and Food Science.
— Terri
Leith
