Farm Animal Days puts children, animals in proximity

March may have come in like a lamb this year, but for more than 10,000 children and adults who attended Farm Animal Days, it went out like chickens and turkeys and horses and cows, rabbits, pigs and, well, there were lambs too.

Brilliant late March weather attracted a near-record crowd to Farm Animal Days, an annual College of Agriculture and Life Sciences event that promotes close encounters between children and farm animals. Brent Jennings, North Carolina Cooperative Extension associate in animal science and event coordinator, said the 2012 Farm Animal Days attracted 10,367 visitors. That’s several hundred shy of the 2011 all-time record attendance of 10,962.

This year’s Farm Animal Days was March 28-30 at the Lake Wheeler Road Field Laboratory Beef Education Unit. The event, which is free and open to the public, features the aforementioned farm animals. In many cases, children can actually touch the animals. There were also roping demonstrations and tractors on which to climb. And new this year was a wooden cow that could be milked. And of course, Farm Animals Days features complimentary cups of N.C. State’s Howling Cow ice cream.

Dr. Reid Evans, assistant director for university field labs, credited field lab employees and student volunteers, particularly from animal and poultry science, with making Farm Animal Days a success.

The following sponsors also helped make this year’s Farm Animal Days possible.

Gold sponsor

• Wake County Farm Bureau

Silver sponsors

• Animal Science Club
• Howling Cow Ice Cream
• Department of Animal Science

Bronze sponsors

• N.C. Agricultural Foundation
• N.C. Egg Association
• N.C. Pork Council
• N.C. Cattlemen’s Association

Friends of Farm Animal Days

• Dr. and Mrs. Frank Sargent

Written by: Dave Caldwell, 919.513.3127 or dave_caldwell@ncsu.edu