LAPORTE, Ind. – About 800 grade school kids from Indiana learned a typical cow produces about 100 pounds of milk per day and watched wheat being ground into flour.

That just scratched the surface of what they were taught about food production and how that food gets to their dinner tables during the annual Ag Days, an event hosted by LaPorte County Farm Bureau on March 12 and 13.

LaPorte County Farm Bureau members were the instructors at more than a dozen portable classrooms inside and outside the Community Building at the LaPorte County Fairgrounds, where school children in buses arrived during the morning and afternoon sessions.

A combine and other major pieces of farm machinery, along with live farm animals, were also brought in as a learning experience for the children.

Dairy Farmer Frank Minich told kids from various schools that a cow begins producing milk about two years after it is born and drinks a standard sized “bathtub full of water” every day.

He also informed them calves weigh about 100 pounds at birth and are given powdered milk mixed with water to drink for about the first two months.

“They drink about a half gallon of that twice a day,” he said.

He also showed them clear packages of corn and pellets containing vitamins and minerals given to calves for them to eat as they get older. 

Minich’s farm, near the unincorporated community of Door Village in the northwest part of the state, has about 800 dairy cows.

Paul Herrold, a grain farmer on about 3,000 acres near Westville, gave lessons about corn, soybeans and wheat.

During an energy packed question and answer session, he used an electric powered hand-held grinder about the size of a cake bowl to demonstrate how wheat is turned into flour.

He also explained how flour is used to make things like bread and donuts. “What am I going to get when I grind this wheat? Flour. Exactly,” he said.

Luann Troxel, a retired dairy farmer, stood in front of two newborn calves while discussing things like why drinking milk is good for the body.

“That’s why milk is a great product because it gives you protein and calcium naturally,” she said.

Tim Bauer, a teacher at the Renaissance Academy, seemed just as interested as his students, if not more, from what he was learning.

“It’s great we got to see cows at 2 days old. I didn’t know cows were so big after 2 days. I think this is wonderful,” he said.

Alayna Pol, a fourth-grade teacher at Hailmann Elementary School in LaPorte, said her students seemed most surprised about how pickles and ketchup are made along with the use of drones and robotics nowadays in agriculture.

“They’re very interested, engaged and asking some great questions. I think this is fantastic,” she said. 

La Porte County Farm Bureau President Mark Parkman said Ag Days dates to 1984, when it was hosted by the La Porte Row Crop Food Producers organization.

He said it was held annually until the COVID-19 pandemic but since has resumed as a yearly event teaching children about food production and the work involved in getting it to their dinner tables.

There were also goats, rabbits and a miniature horse children could reach out and pet during their visit to the event.

Parkman, who raises corn, soybeans, hay, wheat and cattle, said La Porte County Farm Bureau. with help from the row crop group, now puts on the event.

“It’s a pretty good way for kids to learn about where their food comes from,” he said.