Agriculture a highlight at the Medicine Hat Exhibition and Stampede

The Country in the City exhibit inside the Cypress Centre at the Medicine Hat Exhibition and Stampede was full of activity during Kiddies Day at the grounds.

Myrna Lang, a volunteer said the event started in 2006.

“We started out in Kinplex two, and since then we’ve grown, and now we’re in the Pavilion. As you can see, there’s like 30 exhibitors here,” Lang said.

“We have a variety of animals, pigs, lambs, goats, horses. We’ve got a baby horse this year. We’ve got cows. Quite a few things,” she added.

“We also have the worm farm and the Irvine School Agriculture Discovery Centre. They’ve got quite a big booth.”

Lang also mentioned there are a number of business on site at the Country in the City area.

“We’ve got Prairie Gleaners, Big Marble has a great big exhibit here. We’ve got the drones,” Lang said.

“We’ve sort of progressed with technology, so our exhibits have changed from year to year.”

Lang said it’s important for people to be able to experience Agriculture.

“It’s very important. That’s why the government has given us extra funding for the exhibition to keep this going, because lots of people don’t get to see these animals, especially when they live in urban cities. So it makes a difference,” Lang said.

Kids were on site enjoying seeing all the farm animals.

Ty Jans, summer intern, Irvine School Agriculture Discovery Center said they were happy to help people at the multiple booths they had set up.

“We have some animals, we also have our worm farm that we brought along with us. It’s a giant composting bin that we put all of our school’s waste product, paper, fruits, all that stuff that you might just throw in the garbage,” Jans said.

“We put in our big worm farm and then they eat it up and turn it into compost. Then we also just have kind of like a break area for the kids to hang out too. We’re just trying to keep a nice cool area for kids to sit down and maybe learn a little bit more about agriculture while they’re at it too,” he added.

“I think the worms are a highlight for sure. A couple of days ago at the start of Stampede, we ended up putting in some watermelon so that the worms would come up to the surface. I could just pull up watermelon and have thousands of worms literally right there for the kids to see. They love touching them, seeing them, asking questions about, that’s literally just from the worms? I’m like, yeah, the worms can eat pretty much anything and turn it into compost for us.”

Besides the worms there was another animal the kids seemed to really enjoy.

“I think it’s been the goats. They love to poke their heads over the fence and just see people and just say hi,” Jans said.

“I think it’s just kind of sparking those moments for kids. Those like, oh, farm animals are really cool. Especially today on kiddie day. This is what it’s really all about, is getting kids and families and people who may never have seen goats, sheep, piglets, cows exposed to the farm for the first time,” he added.

“People need to know where their food come from. I think that this is a great first step to figuring that out.”

Jans said they have been able to have some really good conversations with adults as well.

“I think more for the parents. I think we can have that really good conversation about animals and how we treat our animals. And for me, I’m the parent to these animals, right? I care about them,” Jans said.

“They’re like my kids. I need to look after them and make sure they’re safe and sound. I come in the morning and they’re all screaming for me because they’re hungry, right? I think opening up that door to agriculture and saying to people like, hey, it’s not this scary, intimidating, we run them in a factory, do this kind of world. It’s more of a, no, we love our animals,” he added.

“We care for them and we want to make sure that our animals are loved, respected the same way that anybody’s kid would be. It’s awesome to get those conversations with the parents and just kind of see them light up, seeing their kids enjoy the farm so much. It’s awesome. I absolutely love it.”

The first ever Cowboy Clash Ranch Scramble took place Friday with long established ranch families from the area to fit in with the agriculture theme.

The Vossler Ranch was the big winner taking home top spot, which included $3,000 and Belt Buckles for the competitors and owners. The Hargrave Ranch also took home $1,500.

by Jesse Gill

Agriculture a highlight at the Medicine Hat Exhibition and Stampede

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