Faulkner County second graders get hands-on with agriculture at Farm Round Up
By Rebekah Hall
U of A System Division of Agriculture
April 18, 2025
Fast Facts:
- 25th anniversary of Farm Round Up, hosted by Faulkner County Extension
- All second graders in Faulkner County invited annually to free educational event
- Students rotate through 16 learning stations featuring agriculture, livestock
(954 words)
(Newsrooms: With photos)
CONWAY, Ark. — Over the course of two days, 800 second grade students from Faulkner County schools made their way through Farm Round Up, an annual event hosted by the Faulkner County Extension Office to educate children about Arkansas agriculture and the sources of their food.
The 25th annual Farm Round Up took place April 15-16 at the Conway Expo and Event Center. More than 200 volunteers helped at the event, which featured 16 hands-on educational stations that students rotated through over the course of each day. Animal stations included 4-H and FFA member demonstrations of swine, poultry, goats, horses, rabbits and beef cattle. Indoor stations included composting, growing potatoes, apple products, rice, bees, seed germination and more.
The Faulkner County Extension Office hosted the event, along with extension subcommittees of county stakeholders. Arkansas Farm Bureau, the Arkansas Cattlemen’s Association, Arkansas Farm Credit, Faulkner County Master Gardeners and Greenway Equipment sponsored the event, ensuring it was free for all second graders to attend.
Mary Beth Groce, Faulkner County extension family and consumer sciences agent for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, said many of the students who attend the annual event do not have previous experience with agriculture or livestock.
“They don’t have a frame of reference for farm life or farm animals, it’s not in their family, this is not something that they’re raised around,” Groce said. “So, for many of them, it’s their initial awareness of getting to see and touch a cow, goat or chicken for the first time and learning where their food comes from.”
Groce said the experience also helps introduce children to Arkansas’ largest industry and helps them learn that “it’s something to be proud of,” she said. “This is what your state thrives in.”
In addition to introducing students to agriculture, Groce said the event also helps the Faulkner County extension staff establish new relationships with local teachers.
“At the county office, it gives us connections with new teachers,” Groce said. “They’ll say, ‘Hey, you do this stuff? Can you come and do this for my class?’ And it starts a whole new partnership. It’s great for them and great for us: everybody is learning and working together. It’s awesome.”
Angela Blue, a second-grade teacher at Ida Burns Elementary School in Conway, has been attending the event for the last few years and said her students often leave with a new interest in “growing their own food and thinking about animals they’d like to raise, like chickens and bunnies.”
Blue said that the experience helped one of her students quickly overcome their trepidation around the livestock.
“I had a student come in, and first thing this morning, she was afraid the animals would eat her,” Blue said. “By the end, she was wanting to touch every animal and wanted to hear all about where they were from and how she could get them.”
Amy Powell, principal of Ida Burns Elementary School, said the event “makes connections for our kids.”
“A lot of times, our kids don’t get to get out and experience a lot of things,” Powell said. “So here, they learn about animals, they learn about farming and all those things. But then to get to see it and touch it and feel it, I think that makes an impact on them. Being here with them as they experience those things, it touches your heart.”
Kami Green, Faulkner County extension 4-H agent for the Division of Agriculture, said she also loves seeing the “ah-ha moments, where these kids, and even some of their parents, make these connections for the first time.”
“That’s the really neat thing,” Green said. “Every station is interactive, so the kids get little things to take home with them. For example, we have the germination station, where they make a necklace that will actually hold a germinating seed, so they can see that process and say, ‘Oh, a farmer does this every day so I can have food.’”
Green said she also appreciates the fact that 4-H and FFA members get to share their livestock knowledge with younger children.
“When you’re in the barn, it’s kids teaching kids,” she said. “It’s 4-H and FFA kids coming together with their animal project, and they’re teaching the second graders.”
25 years of agriculture education
Green said the Farm Round Up event was originally suggested by the Faulkner County Extension’s agriculture subcommittee.
“Our committees with extension are made up of stakeholders in our county, and they help us decide what programming extension should offer every year,” Green said. “So, 25 years ago, the ag subcommittee said, ‘We really need to be teaching the youth about the next generation of agriculture to know where their food comes from.’”
Leanna Lee Clark has been a volunteer with the event every year since its inception. Clark owns Flying C Ranch, a cow-calf operation in Conway, where she also operates a farm store featuring their beef and other locally grown products.
Clark was serving on the Faulkner County Extension agriculture subcommittee when the Farm Round Up event was conceived. Clark said they based the program on a similar event in Washington County called Farm Friends.
“The way Farm Friends got started, they did a survey of second graders and asked them, ‘Well, where does your lettuce come from? Where does your milk come from? Where does your hamburger meat come from?’ And the responses they got were, ‘Kroger, the Piggly Wiggly,’” Clark said. “The education element here is so important. If we don’t teach these young people about agriculture, we may not always have that food source in Kroger or Harps.”
To learn more about Farm Round Up, contact Kami Green at kgreen@uada.edu or visit the Faulkner County Extension website.
To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on X and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on X at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on X at @AgInArk.
About the Division of Agriculture
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s mission is to strengthen agriculture, communities, and families by connecting trusted research to the adoption of best practices. Through the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service, the Division of Agriculture conducts research and extension work within the nation’s historic land grant education system.
The Division of Agriculture is one of 20 entities within the University of Arkansas System. It has offices in all 75 counties in Arkansas and faculty on three campuses.
Pursuant to 7 CFR § 15.3, the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture offers all its Extension and Research programs and services (including employment) without regard to race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, sexual preference, pregnancy or any other legally protected status, and is an equal opportunity institution.
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Media Contact:
Rebekah Hall
rkhall@uada.edu
@RKHall_
501-671-2061