Students and livestock come face to face at AgVenture

The goats both horrified and fascinated the third graders from Palmetto Elementary School.

Seated on upside down buckets in a semicircle, the students shook small containers of cream, hoping to make butter. Two goats in a pen stared at the children, and the children stared back. When one goat dropped pellets on the ground, the children screamed, but they couldn’t look away.

The Palmetto students were face to face with livestock, and for many it was the first time.

The goat exposure was part of “AgVenture,” a morning of hands-on activities at the Manatee County Fairgrounds organized by the Manatee County 4-H Club. On Thursday roughly 1,000 third graders learned about dairy farming, beekeeping, rabbitry, citrus harvesting, growing tomatoes and other agricultural pursuits taking place in Manatee County during the annual event.

At a rabbit station, students stroked Leroy, a 17-pound bunny whose only movement was his twitching nose.

Rabbit presenter Sue McGonegal explained to the students how rabbits serve many functions, from providing fur to European fashion lines to being therapy animals for abuse victims.

At a chicken station, children learned how to properly hold a chicken, and at the cattle station, children passed around branding equipment.

Every few minutes, presenters were interrupted by Palmetto High School senior Dannie Glassburn, 17, whose whip-popping demonstration was the noisy culmination of her presentation on cattle management.

Tim Lewis, a cattle rancher in Palmetto, said the event helped bridge the divide in Manatee, where some children never leave the city despite living in a county known for its agriculture. Manatee County ranks sixth in the state for the value of its agricultural products, according to the Florida Department of Agriculture.

Back at the goat station, Jayden Dunbar, 8, screamed. While trying to turn cream into butter, cream had leaked out of his container and gotten onto his hand.

“It was nasty,” he explained.

But Jayden said in spite of the cream incident, seeing the animals up close made him curious about farm life and he may want to have a cow when he is older.

Jayden’s experience underscored why organizers say the event is important.

“They are amazed,” said Lisa Henson, a volunteer group leader at the event. “They think chocolate milk comes from a brown cow. This is something completely different for them.”

This story was originally published November 17, 2016 at 1:39 PM with the headline "Students and livestock come face to face at AgVenture."