One of the cows at the Hartline Valley Farms in Marietta where Washington County fifth-graders visited Thursday and Friday as part of the Washington Soil & Water Conservation District’s 27th Annual Farm City Days. Students got to see what goes into farming and where the food they buy at the grocery store comes from. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

MARIETTA — Local students got a chance to see all the things in their lives that come from agriculture and the work done by area farmers.

Area fifth-graders got the chance to see how a real farm works during the Washington Soil & Water Conservation District’s 27th annual Farm City Days at Hartline Valley Farms on Thursday and Friday.

“The purpose of the event is to invite all of the fifth-graders in Washington County to a farm to experience what the farm is like on a real-life firsthand basis,” said Alexis Lane, Education Specialist from the Washington Soil and Water Conservation District.

On Thursday, they had 191 area students come to the farm and they had 192 on Friday. Lane said students came in from Belpre, Marietta, Fort Frye, Waterford and Warren as well as St. Marys.

The students visited various stations, learning about different aspects of agriculture, she said. The students were able to put a milker on a cow if they wanted to and learned about the other aspects of the daily work being done by farmers in their area.

Some of the cows at the Hartline Valley Farms in Marietta where Washington County fifth-graders visited Thursday and Friday as part of the Washington Soil & Water Conservation District’s 27th Annual Farm City Days. Students got to see how a farm works and the things that farmers do. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

“They learn about all of the things in their lives that come from agriculture and where it comes from,” Lane said, adding presenters were doing demonstrations on soap making, soil/water quality, animal feed, crops, farm equipment, seeing baby calves, milking cattle and more. The kids were also able to go on a hayride.

Lisa Mayle, a fifth grade teacher at Warren Middle School, said their school had around 145 students at the event Friday.

The students have been learning different things like how manure is utilized in farm work and fertilizing fields; how baby calves are fed and cared for when they are first born; learned about the kinds of feed given to cows, including the corn and soybeans that are grown on the farm; how crops are harvested and the equipment farmers used; how the cows are milked and more.

“Kids who have never been on or to a farm, getting to see where the milk comes from that they go to the store and buy and seeing where that comes from,” Mayle said. “We want them to see what it takes to get that carton of milk to the store.

“It is really eye-opening for a lot of kids. They get a lot out of the hands-on experience.”

Farmer Gale Hartline attaches a milker to one of his cows Friday as Washington County fifth-graders toured his family’s farm as part of the Washington Soil & Water Conservation District’s 27th Annual Farm City Days. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

Gale Hartline, one of the co-owners of Hartline Valley Farms who also inherited the farm from his parents, said they farm 600-700 acres and have around 200 milking cows and 200 replacement heifers.

He was glad to be able to host the students this week at the farm. He wanted to stress where all the items people get in the grocery store comes from

“I think it is important,” he said. “The kids need to know where their food comes from and where it all originates from.

“I hope they have had a good day here and a good representation of how we do things here.”

Warren student Deanna Gates enjoyed seeing how everything is done on a farm, especially how the cows are milked and being able to attach a milker to one of the cows.

Area Washington County fifth-graders saw how cows get milked at the Hartline Valley Farms in Marietta as part of the Washington Soil & Water Conservation District’s 27th Annual Farm City Days. The students got the chance to attach the milkers to the cows. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

“It is pretty cool,” she said. “I liked seeing all the baby calves and how all the equipment works.”

The students asked if milking the cows hurt them. Lane said it did not as the milk can build up and cause sickness and other problems for the cows.

“The cows do like being milked,” she said. “I had a student ask if it was inhumane to milk a cow and I said it would be more inhumane not to milk a cow.”

Warren student Evie Papania said it was interesting to see how the cows are milked and how other things on the farm operate.

“It was fun to be able to pet the baby calves,” she said. “It was interesting to see all the processes they go through on a farm.”

Cathy Dasis of the Washington Soil and Water Conservation District gives a demonstration Friday to area fifth-graders about water quality on a farm during the 27th Annual Farm City Days. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

There are still a number of family farms in Washington County, Lane said. There are not as many dairy farms in Washington County as there were 10 years ago. Many are now considered corporate farms. Many crops in the area include corn, soybean and hay.

Organizers want to instill in the kids the importance of agriculture and the importance of the farmers who do it and how those skills still have a lot of value, Lane said.

“Without farms, there is no food,” she said.

Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com.

PJ Wells of the Ohio State University Extension Office for Washington County instructs area fifth-graders about how manure is used in a farm setting at the Hartline Valley Farms in Marietta as part of the Washington Soil & Water Conservation District’s 27th Annual Farm City Days. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)