On Thursday, Pre-K and elementary school students from New London and Hortonville got a chance to get up close and personal with what life is like on the farm. Every year, Del Korth opens up his dairy farm to roughly 200 to 250 students in the area, who learn about different topics of the farm from students in the New London FFA.
“The New London FFA basically is taking our farm over for the day,” said farm owner Del Korth. “The [FFA] students are at different stations and they each give a talk on a different topic. They get to see what a working dairy is like.”
Seventh grader Lora Korth was one of the station leaders who has experienced both sides of the tour. She learned from older FFA students while she was in fourth grade not long ago, but now she is the one sharing her knowledge with the younger kids.
“I teach them about how the cows stay warm in the winter, what we feed them, how long we feed them on the bottle, how we treat them and why, and if they don’t eat what we do,” Lora said of her role. “I’ve noticed [the younger students] like the cows, they like being out here, and it’s a day where they get to come and experience what we do for a day.”
The goal of the tour is not only to help supplement what the younger students learn in the classroom, but also serves to benefit the FFA students to practice presenting in front of others. Del Korth adds that the younger kids really look up to them.
“It’s good training for the FFA students,” Del said. “It gives them a chance to be a leader and it works out real well because the fourth-grade students are the ones that are here and they have a lot of questions. They treat the FFA students like they’re their bigger brother or sister and they listen to them really well, rather than listen to an older person.”
Del adds that it’s a treat having the students tour his farm and hopes they’re able to learn a thing or two during the day.
Students from Parkview Elementary in New London are learning about milking at Korth farm #FFA pic.twitter.com/D5RR0z2ndw
— TCHDailyNews (@WTCHRadio) May 11, 2017