July 15, 2016
CapitalPress.com
13
Extension Twilight Tour to showcase research
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
KIMBERLY, Idaho — Seri-
ous research hums along daily at
the University of Idaho’s Kim-
berly Research and Extension
Center, but the research farm
will take on a festive air July 20
when it hosts its biannual Twi-
light Tour.
Open to the public, the tour
will feature not only current re-
search at the center but all things
ag in the region. The tour will be
packed with activities and dis-
plays, family fun and an oppor-
tunity to visit with University of
Idaho faculty and staff.
The theme of this year’s
event is “Growing Knowledge
for Growing Food.”
“It is an opportunity for us to
showcase some of the research
and extension projects related to
increasing our knowledge about
growing food that are taking
place across Southern Idaho,”
said Don Morishita, superinten-
dent of the research center.
The free event will take place
from 5 to 8 p.m., complete with
music, games, wagon rides and
a beef dinner.
“We try to make it a family
event with things kids can do
and look at,” he said.
One attraction returning to
this year’s tour is the insect “pet-
ting zoo,” with live and pinned
insects, some involved in cur-
rent research.
The event will also feature a
6-foot-deep, transparent soil pit,
with soil scientists explaining
the characteristics of the area’s
soil.
In addition, UI entomologist
Erik Wenninger will perform
with his band, The Barking
Owls, and UI mascot Joe Van-
dal will be on hand for fun and
photos.
Interactive displays, exhibits
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formation on potatoes, wheat,
barley, sugar beets, dry beans,
plant diseases, insects, weeds,
nutrient management, water
conservation and management,
aquaculture, food preservation,
nutrition and 4-H.
Wagons will traverse the ex-
periment station, stopping at re-
search plots, where researchers
will explain what’s taking place,
Morishita said.
“It’s an opportunity to show
taxpayers, the public, our re-
search activities,” Morishita
said.
“It’s also an opportunity for
potential UI students and their
families, as well as current UI
students and alumni, to learn
more about what is going on at
their university,” he said.
UI President Chuck Staben,
College of Agricultural and Life
Sciences Dean Michael Parrella,
Idaho Agricultural Experiment
Station Director Mark McGuire
and Extension Director Barbara
Petty all plan to attend.
Courtesy of UI Kimberly Research and Extension Center
Sara Zglobicki, a former University of Idaho graduate student,
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the Threebear soil series, on index cards. The photo was taken at
a previous Twilight Tour at the UI Kimberly Research and Exten-
sion Center.
FFA allows ag mechanics
students to shine
Anderson, Calif., High School FFA adviser George Wold
encourages students each year to enter their shop-class
creations in a competition at the Shasta District Fair in June.
FFA member Dustin McNeely of Anderson, Calif., stands next
to the garden cart he made in shop class and entered in the
Shasta District Fair’s ag mechanics contest, winning best of
show. The annual fair in June displays students’ metal and
wood shop creations next to the livestock sale arena.
ANDERSON, Calif. — Raising
livestock isn’t the only way that high
school students in FFA prepare for
entering their local fairs.
At the Shasta District Fair here
in June, dozens of tables, chairs,
gardening equipment and other shop-
class creations were displayed next to
the livestock show arena.
Dustin McNeely, who will enter
Shasta College’s agricultural
mechanics program in the fall, won a
Best of Show for the garden cart he
spent nearly the full school year
working on in his high school wood
shop class.
While the 19-year-old McNeely
also brought a market hog to the fair,
he likes the ag mechanics competition
“because it gives you a chance to get in
front of the public and show them what
you can do and make a little extra
money on the side,” he said.
While the Shasta District Fair
has displayed students’ shop-class
creations for many years, they started
holding a silent auction of the items
about 10 years ago, said George Wold,
an Anderson High School ag teacher
who helps put on the display.
While the animals are still the
big sellers, the auction of shop-class
creations can bring in between $10,000
and $15,000, Wold said.
Further, the mechanics
competition gives students who don’t
have animals or are just more
mechanically inclined a chance to shine.
“A lot of times, a shop kid is just
a different kind of kid,” Wold said,
noting that the students are sometimes
more quiet and reserved and are looking
for a practical trade.
“Sometimes we forget that side
of it,” he said. “We push college on
kids, but college isn’t for every
student.”
The future has never been
brighter on the mechanical side of
agriculture, he said. He noted that one
of his former students is now in his final
year at California
Polytechnic
University-San
Luis Obispo and
is preparing for a
career in
irrigation
technology.
For some
students, the local
fair gives them a
desire to compete
in other FFA-
related contests.
“This almost
becomes a
springboard for
kids,” he said.
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