More than 850 people visited Tyrone Area FFA “Agricultural Education” tent at the Tyrone Rotary Club Farm City Day on September 22 in downtown Tyrone.

The good weather brought the community out to see about 90 vendors during the eight-hour event. The FFA members have been assisting with the event for years, but this is the second year the chapter has erected a tent to showcase many aspects of agriculture.

“There are more than 300 distinct careers in agriculture, and one in five Americans are employed in some area of agriculture,” explained Tiffany Hoy, Tyrone Area FFA advisor.

“Not only is this a wonderful event for the chapter members to learn and make connections, but to also develop their skills in public speaking and interacting with people they may have never met before. This event allows our members to also educate the public about the importance of Tyrone’s Agricultural Education Program and how STEM plays a role in agriculture,” said Hoy.

Garin Hoy, chapter vice president, summed it up, “Agriculturalists are knowledgeable individuals who have to know science to find treatments and produce more with less, practice engineering to resolve issues, utilize and advance with technology, and use math in all types of applications. It doesn’t matter if they are a farmer, turfgrass manager, food scientist, florist or a publicist for an Ag company – they are demonstrating STEM techniques.”

Just as the public has favorite activities at Tyrone Farm City Day, so do the FFA chapter members.

“My favorite part was when the residents came up to me asking what kind of animals were here, and then asked specifically about the goats,” said freshman FFA member Kaila Moon.

The chapter members not only assisted with the animals, including a pony, two Boer goats, a one-day old calf, and three-week old piglets, junior Logan Johnston brought “Flower,” her award winning dairy goat to also showcase her Supervised Agricultural Experience project.

Other activities included Pesticide Education miniature golf, electricity, soil erosion, leverage, pulley systems, and finally, the public was invited to play corn hole on two boards built by Garin Hoy from recycled pallets.

There were also AgriScience displays available for the public to view. Karly Diebold, chapter treasurer, spent some time talking with attendees about her fertilizer planting study.

Chapter President MaKenna LaRosa has assisted with the FFA side of the event for the past four years.

“I encouraged people to come down to Farm City Day, it’s always a lot of fun, especially since we added the Agricultural Education Tent. You get to interact with a lot of kids from all ages and share the fun-filled day with each other,” said LaRosa.