Attendance has been outstanding at this year’s Indiana State Fair. Weather has been very cooperative and with good weekend conditions the fair officials might reach their attendance goal.
One of the busy venues all fair long has been the FFA pavilion on the north side. It offers plenty of activities and learning opportunities for kids, and FFA state officer Marshall Perkins has even learned some things.
“It’s eye-opening to me that not everyone knows about dairy animals and the things that go on. In our Indiana FFA Pavilion here at the state fair it’s neat to watch people walk through and look at the facts that we have throughout our pavilion and just stand there in shock and awe. Like ‘oh a dairy cow produces 50 to a hundred glasses of milk per day,’ or even something as simple as chocolate milk doesn’t come from brown cows.”
Perkins from the Prairie Heights FFA knows all about dairy. He grew up on a 500-cow northeast Indiana dairy farm with 2,500 acres of crops. As part of a dairy farm family Perkins is thrilled to be spending almost every day at the Year of Dairy Cows fair.
We also caught up with Shelby Riley from Hamilton Southeastern FFA who will double major in ag communications and ag education at Purdue next year. She is also excited about post state fair actitivies.
“We have chapter visits coming up and some business and industry visits, so I’m really looking forward to interacting with other people throughout the agriculture industry.”
Briley Fichter is the Southern Region Vice President from Castle FFA in Newburgh.
“It has been an absolute honor to be a part of this officer team. I have dreamed of this for four years. It started my freshman year and the first time I saw a state officer I thought they were the people I had ever seen in my life and I looked up to them. They were my heroes. So throughout the past four years I’ve been working to get to this level where I can run for state office and be elected a state officer. It’s a really wonderful opportunity.”
She also plans to major in ag communications, but south of the border. She will enroll at Western Kentucky University.
Brandon Bergdall is from the Bellmont FFA chapter in Decatur, Indiana and plans to major in agriculture education at Purdue.
“A lot of people these days do not know where their food comes from and that’s a big issue. We want everybody to know about agriculture and how they get their food and clothes, and right now in Indiana especially there are a lot of ag teachers retiring, and we are in deep need of ag teachers for the future to keep our programs going. That way we can have a successful agriculture and FFA community in Indiana.”[audio:https://www.hoosieragtoday.com//wp-content/uploads//2012/08/Indiana-FFA-at-Indiana-State-Fair.mp3|titles=Indiana FFA at Indiana State Fair]
HAT interviewed State President Cameron Mann and State Secretary Katherine Spencer, both from Putnam County, the day after the state convention concluded.
The HAT interview with Briley and Brandon:[audio:https://www.hoosieragtoday.com//wp-content/uploads//2012/08/Briley-and-Brandon.mp3|titles=Briley and Brandon]The HAT interview with Marshall:[audio:https://www.hoosieragtoday.com//wp-content/uploads//2012/08/Marshall-Perkins.mp3|titles=Marshall Perkins]The HAT interview with Shelby:[audio:https://www.hoosieragtoday.com//wp-content/uploads//2012/08/Shelby-Riley.mp3|titles=Shelby Riley]