National Agriculture Day is Wednesday, March 18th

Mar 16, 2015

Whole day dedicated to how agriculture helps the world

Nowadays, every day of the year seems to be a national day of something, whether satirical or not.

October 2^nd is classified as National Smile Day, June 10^th is National Black Cow Day and May 13^th is considered National Apple Pie Day.

But on March 18^th, the nation turns to appreciate farming and agriculture on what’s known as National Ag Day.

2015 will mark the 42^nd anniversary of the day dedicated to celebrating agriculture and those who practice and make sure the world is fed. The day aims to encourage many things including the understanding of where their food comes from and how agriculture helps promote a successful and strong economy.

The day will feature many different celebrations across the country.

The day will kick off at 8:30am at the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, DC with a breakfast and speakers about the future of agriculture including biotechnology, big data and research.

10:00 – noon will feature the FarmHer Exhibit which will showcase photos of women and their roles in agriculture. The photos are taken by Marji Guyler-Alaniz.

California’s State Capitol will host farm animals and educational displays and information about the importance of soil health.

In Iowa, Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey is encouraging people to participate in a photo project to showcase a day in agriculture.

Using the hashtag #DayinIAag, people are asked to upload photos of their daily farm activities. Secretary Northey is also going to participate.

Join the conversation. How do you plan on celebrating National Ag Day? As a farmer, what does National Ag Day mean to you?

Video: Cleaning Sheep Barns & Setting Up Chutes

Indoor sheep farming in winter at pre-lambing time requires that, at Ewetopia Farms, we need to clean out the barns and manure in order to keep the sheep pens clean, dry and fresh for the pregnant ewes to stay healthy while indoors in confinement. In today’s vlog, we put fresh bedding into all of the barns and we remove manure from the first groups of ewes due to lamb so that they are all ready for lambs being born in the next few days. Also, in preparation for lambing, we moved one of the sorting chutes to the Coveralls with the replacement ewe lambs. This allows us to do sorting and vaccines more easily with them while the barnyard is snow covered and hard to move sheep safely around in. Additionally, it frees up space for the second groups of pregnant ewes where the chute was initially.