Commodity Carnival offers unique agriculture learning experience for children and adults alike
By Kellen Olshefski
SLN Staff
The 4-H Youth Development of the UW-Extension Office is preparing to bring its Commodity Carnival, a unique agricultural learning experience, to next week’s Farm Technology Days in Walworth County.
Wisconsin 4-H Youth Development Ag and Animal Science Specialist Pam Hobson said the booth, sponsored by the National 4-H Council and the CME Group and set up at fairs with help from 4-H Youth Development Ag and Animal Science Intern Bailey Fritsch, offers a unique learning opportunity, featuring a program with youth and parents walking by.
“It helps them to understand and learn all the inputs, all the things, costs, from raising a pig from a baby pig to market weight,” she said.
Taking a sometimes difficult concept, Hobson said it puts the process into simple terms that both children and your average American can understand.
Hobson said children are given a pink Easter egg, representative of a young pig, which youngsters take down the line, filling it with feed, learning about nutrition, energy costs – such as fans and air conditioning – medical costs and more.
At the very end of the line, children weigh their eggs and depending on what it weighs, based upon their choices throughout the rest of the process, they determine how much they would have to earn at market to make a profit. The children then drop a small pink disc down a Plinko board – or Piglinko as the Commodity Carnival calls it – to determine what they would earn at market.
Started four years ago and having been at both the Wisconsin State Fair and Farm Technology Days in the past, Hobson said the response from the public has been positive so far.
“One of the parents, we were talking, and she goes, ‘I’ve learned more here in ten minutes than I thought I would ever know about agriculture,’” she said. “So, it’s a great way to help them become informed.”
Hobson noted they’ve also gotten great results from area 4-H youth running the booth, who already have a grasp of agriculture concepts, but are gaining valuable experience in dealing with communication skills, responsibility and more life skills they’ll use throughout their life.
“It’s a great program,” Hobson said.
“It’s a really good opportunity for us to help the general public learn about agriculture, plus we can promote 4-H and all these other things and it’s really great too because we have these older youth out there actually running the booth that are learning skills for themselves as well.
Hobson said the Commodity Carnival also serves as a great opportunity to get the word out about 4-H, showing that it’s not just for farm kids and it’s not just about plows and cows.
“We can also talk about how in agriculture there are many other types of jobs that are truly agriculture careers that you never have to be on a farm to do,” she said.
For more on the Commodity Carnival, search wicommoditycarnival on Facebook. For more on Farm Technology Days, see Section 2 of this week’s newspaper.
