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Agriculture was on full display during Thorsby FFA’s annual Farm Day held at the school April 27.

Businesses and organizations from around the area filled the grassy area in front of Thorsby High School with exhibits that promoted agriculture and its importance.

Elementary classes took their turns rotating through the Farm Day exhibits.

It was the sixth year of the event, which started with Thorsby FFA members leading the demonstrations and teaching the younger students.

“We want to change it up every year with something new to keep them interested,” senior Carson Littleton said. “It’s all about exposing them to all of the broad things that agriculture has to offer as a whole.”

Some of the new displays to Farm Day in 2018 included a horse farrier, soil profile and plant propagation.

“We’re trying to teach them that it’s not just dirt, but it’s soil,” said Cooper Nichols, soil scientist with USDA. “They [kids] have been interactive, and I think they’ve had a lot of fun.”

Over time Farm Day has grown to the point where outside organizations and departments have shown an interest in taking part in the event.

“We’re all helping give back to these kids’ education, so that we can all have a brighter future,” senior Jerrett Posey said. “As successful as we are, we know that there’s going to have to be people coming behind us.”

Clydesdale Carriages recently moved to Thorsby and was on hand with one of its Clydesdales. It proved to be a popular gathering spot for anyone passing by.

“A lot of people are intimidated because they are not your average size [horse],” said Keila Rojas with Clydesdale Carriages. “Once you get to know her and feed her, she’ll come and love on you for the rest of the day.”

Rojas’ parents Himmbler and Liz own and operate the family business.

Despite the added involvement over the years, the FFA students continue to run the entire event and make sure that everything goes smoothly.

Brian Lucas is Ag teacher at Thorsby and has put a lot of time into developing the school’s FFA. That time spent comes to the forefront during a student-run event such as Farm Day.

“Mr. Lucas has a real strong passion for agriculture and he wants what’s best for our future,” Littleton said. “We’ve had that mutual relationship over the years. He gives us the effort, and we give him the effort.”

The continued growth of Farm Day coincides with the success of the FFA program over the years.

Thorsby FFA has made great strides and continues to look ahead at an even brighter future.

“It’s definitely grown over the past six years,” Posey said. “We went from an FFA program not even existing at this school to having over 100 members, which is huge for a school of our size.”