WH 5th Grade Farm Tour focuses on tiny workers

One of the great things about the annual Tom Graham 5th Grade Farm Tour presented by Holmes Soil & Water Conservation District to both sides of the county each fall is that the kids never know what they might discover.

At this year’s West Holmes tour that took place at DalRoy Farms near Shreve on Sept. 26, a pair of new tour stops joined some old familiars and made for some interesting discoveries for the fifth-graders.

The two new additions were stations about utilizing compost as a way to improve crop yield and establish better conservation practices and another on the art of beekeeping as a way to utilize the farmland to its greatest use while enhancing the crop yield.

DalRoy Farms owner Jim Croskey connected with the kids to present the art of vermicomposting.

If anyone reading this is doing a double take on that word right now, they aren’t alone. Croskey explained to the students that vermicomposting is utilizing earthworms and smaller microorganisms to break down the soil and help stabilize active organic materials and convert it into a valuable soil component and source of plant nutrients.

“We started composting rather than spreading liquid manure on our fields, and then we played around with vermicomposting and we found it really does an amazing job because these little guys really clean up the soil and make it great,” Croskey said.

Croskey told the seventh-graders that by composting he can get seven times as much carbon into the soil, and the compost doesn’t allow greenhouse gases to escape into the atmosphere compared to spreading liquid manure on a field.

“It takes more time, but it’s worth it,” Croskey said.

Jacob Stutz, ODNR wildlife management consultant, joined Jeff Pendlebury, family farm member, to explain the importance of bees to the natural farmland.

Pendlebury and Stutz had the kids mesmerized with a collection of bee hives, honeycombs and other products of the beekeeping realm, and Pendlebury said the bees have been a strong investment that have produced on many different levels.

“One of our goals was to reintroduce bees to the area, and we have about 20 hives here,” Pendlebury said. “The value of honeybees to the farming community is immense.”

The family has planted acreage of both canola and clover on part of the farm, and the bees thrive there. In turn, the bees collect pollen and become a part of developing better crop yield and also benefit many other aspects of nature.

The bees and the worms are basically very inexpensive labor that nature provides.

The other tour sessions included some old favorites: forestry presented by Dave Woodring, soil and compositing in which the kids got to crawl down into a large trench to explore the soil layers and hosted by Darby Sherman of the SWCD, and a presentation on farm safety from the Werst Holmes FFA. In addition, the Croskey family presented a short session on the history of the farm and talked about some of the big machinery.

Joe Christner, semi-retired member of the Holmes SWCD team, has been to 22 years’ worth of farm tours, and he said what has always stuck with him over those many years is seeing the light come on in kids’ eyes as they recognize the value and importance of both the agricultural community and the need to increase conservation practices.

“They get to experience what really goes on at a farm, and when they begin to understand, they begin to respect what our farming community does,” Christner said. “We believe that these kids leave here with good memories that last a long time.”

That so many people in the county can recall their fifth-grade tour will attest to that belief.

Croskey said providing an avenue for the kids to grasp the importance of farming today is something that should never go away.

“I think today’s young people have kind of lost touch with the farming industry and how important it is today,” Croskey said. “And around here, our farmers really do work hard to take great care of the land. Agriculture is such a big part of our county, and hopefully, kids will continue to learn how huge farming is for us here.”

Trevor Berger, Holmes SWCD program director, said having area families ready and willing to host the event also is critical to the success of the program.

“When I first started here, I thought finding hosts was going to be the hardest part,” Berger said. “That’s the easy part.”

He said the tour began more than a half-century ago as an educational program to provide an avenue for kids to learn about agriculture and conservation.

He said in 1965 more kids lived on and knew about farming, but today, more kids have never set foot on a farm, let alone learned the inner workings.

He also said it is always an honor to have the family of Tom Graham visit during each tour and said the family will present the essay award winners during the annual SWCD banquet later this year.