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Agriland offers hands-on opportunities to learn about agricultureKansas Children of all ages will be lured to Agriland in the Pride of Kansas building at the Kansas State Fair by the moos of a life-sized milking cow, the newest addition to the hands-on display. The 6-foot-tall milking cow is an interactive educational tool that allows children and adults alike the opportunity to learn the art of milking. It has a motion-activated sound card that produces moo-ing when anyone walks by. It also has a self-contained pump to circulate fluid that can be milked from the udder into an authentic stainless steel milking pail. Added just last year is the My Pyramid display to help children and their parents learn more about the food guidance system developed by the U. S. Department of Agriculture. My Pyramid is the symbol USDA designed to represent the system that provides many options to help Americans make healthy food choices and to be active every day. Another newer component to the display is a soil tunnel that lets children explore what's below the plants, trees and crops that cover the Kansas landscape. The three-dimensional tool illustrates how important soil is to plant growth, waste recycling and water purification, and as habitat for organisms. Agriland, which anchors the Pride of Kansas building, engages the senses and stimulates the minds of children and adults alike with its interactive activities that teach the importance of agriculture and about production of Kansas grains and livestock. Several Kansas commodity groups and the Kansas Department of Agriculture join forces to bring Agriland to the State Fair each year. "The partnership forged between the Department of Agriculture and Kansas' commodity groups to bring Agriland to the State Fair has been hugely successful," said Kansas Secretary of Agriculture Adrian Polansky. "The fair is a great place to create a fun environment for kids to learn about the importance of agriculture in our day-to-day lives." Other returning features include the "bright and shining faces" sunflower cutout display where children can poke their faces through openings to become "shining faces" among the large, yellow blooms. At a computer kiosk, children can play an interactive game that teaches about careers in agriculture. There's also a large wheel that can be spun to learn more about all aspects of the Kansas beef industry. In the byproducts section, visitors can play the "Did you know?!" interactive game to learn how livestock and crops are used in thousands of products from toothpaste to crayons, shoes and fuel. Children and adults will learn about livestock--how they are raised and what they eat--and they may even pose for a photograph with wood cutouts of a steer, sheep and hog. A stop at the scales will tell you if you weigh as much as a bushel of corn or a baby calf. Kids can look at Kansas grains displayed in a kid-sized grain elevator, or dig into kid-sized vats filled with grain if they want to know what it feels like. The ever-popular ride in a John Deere combine cab shows how Kansas crops are harvested in the field. Teachers can make a stop in the teacher resource center to see what materials are available to help them teach about Kansas agriculture. A huge implement tire serves as a centerpiece to the environmental stewardship area, where visitors learn how farmers care for their livestock and crops, and how they work to keep the land, air and water clean. Another feature is a section of carpet that lies underneath Agriland. It was donated by Universal Textile Technologies of Dalton, Georgia. The carpet has a flexible foam backing made from SoyOyl, a soy-based polyol developed with funding from the soybean checkoff. It is estimated that 47 million bushels of beans would be used if soybean oil was used for all U.S. commercial carpets. Volunteers from the cooperating commodity groups will staff Agriland each day of the fair. Cooperators include the Kansas Department of Agriculture; Kansas Beef Council; Kansas Corn Growers Association and Commission; Kansas Dairy Association; Kansas Wheat; Kansas Grain Sorghum Producers Association and Commission; Kansas Soybean Association and Commission; Kansas Sunflower Commission; and the Kansas Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom. Kansas FFA chapters also will be working in Agriland. Date: 9/11/07
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