Agriculture on parade

LAKE CITY, Minn. — Cheering children stand on the sidewalk by Bluff View Elementary in Lake City Feb. 2. Their shouts encourage the honking of horns of every kind, from soft toots to blaring honks. On the street in front of them passes a parade of agriculture vehicles and equipment, from a tractor and mixer to a dairy supply truck, sprayer and skid loader.

The parade kicked off the school’s “I love to read” month with a focus on agriculture. In February, students learned about aspects of agriculture through a boot library, a visit from Princess Kay of the Milky Way and a book about pizza read to them by FFA students.

Kindergarten teacher Marie Kruse was the organizer for the month.

“It’s always been near and dear to my heart that farming would be part of my teaching,” Kruse said.

Kruse grew up on a farm in Wisconsin. Her grandparents sold the dairy cows when she was in middle school. They made a transition to cash crops, which had been started by her dad before she was born.

After receiving a grant to attend the 2023 National Agriculture in the Classroom Conference, Kruse said she returned with ideas to incorporate what she had learned.

“So many of (the students) are three to four generations away from the family farm,” Kruse said. “We used to have lots of kids who came from farms, and now, we don’t have very many at all.”

Jeremy Holst, a dairy farmer who participated in the parade, agreed.

“We’re a small town, but they’ve (kids) never been on a farm before,” Holst said.

Kruse suggested an agriculture theme for the “I love to read month,” which focuses on a different theme each year.

Kruse called Mark Ryan, the location manager/grain buyer at Ag Partners in Lake City, with the idea of an agriculture parade for the children. He helped to coordinate a variety of participants.

“The ag industry is so open-armed,” Kruse said. “(You) send out a few emails and make a few phone calls and everybody’s eager to help. It’s so amazing. I love it.”

Holst heard about the parade through an email his wife received from Kruse, who was their daughter’s teacher last year.

“It was a pretty cool idea what she was doing to help promote agriculture,” Holst said.

Holst connected with a few of his farmer friends and businesses his farm works with to invite them to be in the parade.

On parade day, Holst and his young son, Lane, were in the parade driving a tractor hitched with a manure spreader. They borrowed it from a farmer friend who lives closer to town.

Holst was one of at least three dairy farmers to participate.

“It’s good to get the kids excited about agriculture, whether dairy farming or any sort of agriculture,” Holst said.

Jeff Bremer was another dairy farmer participating. He drove a tractor and mixer a little over 6 miles to join.

“We have to get them more involved in knowing where all their food comes from and what it takes to make it,” Bremer said.

The parade included about 20 participants. Most of the vehicles gathered in a church parking lot before starting the route past the school.

Holst said some of the children held signs thanking the agriculture industry, which was nice.

“I think the kids enjoyed it,” Holst said. “They like to see the big tractors and trucks and (hear) the honking horns.”

Kruse said they filmed the parade and plan to use the footage to make a video with a short explanation of what each vehicle and piece of equipment does.

Before the parade, Kruse filmed herself in a tractor reading a book about machinery at Midwest Machinery Co. in Plainview. The video was distributed in the classrooms where it could be played before the parade.

The parade was the beginning of a month of agriculture festivities. Each week focused on an aspect of agriculture and included dairy, agriculture careers, meat animals and crops.

For dairy week, Kruse asked Princess Kay of the Milky Way Emma Kuball to make six classroom visits. During lunch, the school drew the names of seven children to share their meals with Kuball.

Kruse also asked dairy farm kids to submit photos and make a video.

FFA students read a book about pizza to the children and explained that everything on a pizza comes from a farm.

The author of the children’s book “Farm Boots,” Lisl H. Detlefsen, also paid a visit to the school. To highlight the theme, the school created a boot library that included boots from various professions along with flip charts and descriptions to explain why they are worn and who wears them.

“We really want them to walk away having a better understanding of where their food, their clothes and all the products they use come from,” Kruse said. “We are trying to build more of a background for them, not only of the things farmers do for us but also the agriculture piece itself, including all the different organizations and careers.”