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MU research farm educates public at annual showcase

Courtney Doll
/
KBIA

MU's South Farm opened its doors to the public with exhibits, demonstrations and animals on display for all ages on Saturday. John Poehlmann is the Assistant Director of the Agriculture Experiment Station for MU. He says the around 35 exhibits at the showcase are geared toward engaging children with agriculture.

"Let them see farm animals or go through our corn maze and enjoy that. So they get an idea, they can at least identify some of the different crops and see that there’s many different dimensions to agriculture,” Poehlmann says.

The different exhibits represent the many science disciplines of the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, or CAFNR. One of these disciplines is turf grass science. Chad Cook is from the Mizzou Turf Grass Club. He says turf grass science is even offered as a major at MU. At Saturday’s showcase, Cook was presiding over squares of grass samples that kids could explore.

“The kids, they’ve been getting to touch the grass and feel the different grasses and they really enjoy that. And we’ve also help set up a putting green so they can put and we have different games,” Cook says.

A CAFNR spokesperson says between 7,000 and 8,000 people attended the event.