On a spring morning, months before the State Fair, the barns at Fonner Park get loud.
Sheep bleat, pigs grunt, and most importantly fourth graders laugh, sometimes because an animal does something unexpected, sometimes because they’re seeing one up close for the first time.
For nearly 800 students from Grand Island and the surrounding area, it’s a day away from the classroom and a chance to rotate through stations featuring livestock, crops, and the people who work with them.
Grand Island is a city built on agriculture. Its largest employers include a beef packing plant, and a facility that produces combines, plus a host of ag‑related manufacturing, trucking, and support jobs. Thousands of families rely on those industries — yet for many kids, agriculture itself feels distant.
That’s something Annette Schimmer, Ag Day organizer, has noticed for years.
“You can be surrounded by agriculture,” Schimmer says, “and not realize it.”
Many students know food comes from a grocery store shelf, she says, but don’t always understand what comes before that — or how their own families fit into the picture. Parents might work at JBS or Case New Holland, but the link between those jobs, animals, and farms isn’t always obvious.
You hear that gap most clearly when talking with the kids themselves.
Fourth grader Dennis eagerly lists the animals he’s seen and says he’s learning a lot. But when asked what the word agriculture means, he hesitates. His dad works at a meat plant. His favorite food is steak. The dots aren’t fully connected just yet.
Northwest FFA member Ryan Scholz helps guide students through the day, and he sees that moment of realization happen again and again. At first, kids are excited about the animals. Later, something clicks.
“When they realize their parents actually do work in the ag industry,” he says, “it really brightens up their day.”
That realization that agriculture isn’t just something far away but something woven into their own lives is one of the goals of the annual Ag Day event.
Whether these kids grow up on farms or far from them, agriculture will still be part of their story.
The Hall County Agricultural Committee is a subcommittee of the Hall County Agricultural Society that focuses on educating the community about the important role agriculture plays in the local economy while supporting area agricultural producers.
