Washington’s Leadership Class Goes Down on the Farm

This year’s Leadership Washington class got an up close and personal look at farming life when it met on Wednesday, March 9th. The leadership program, sponsored by the Washington Chamber of Commerce, combined presentations by experts and field trips to help educate the class on the impact of agriculture to the local economy during its annual Agriculture Day.

Washington County 4-H Youth Coordinator Amy Green started the day in Dallmeyer Hall on the Washington County Fairgrounds with her talk “Farmers Know Best” touching on how many skills farmers must possess. Brayton Turner at 2005 260^th Street spoke on “The Sheep are in the Meadow” and conducted a tour of his operation.  Dan & Mike Berdo at 2174 275^th Street showed their set-up about “Beef-It’s What’s for Dinner.”  The class returned back to the Fairgrounds for Tye Rinner, farm manager at Rinner Farms of Washington, speech to the group on the topic “Turkeys Aren’t Just For Thanksgiving Anymore”.

Following a lunch at the fairgrounds catered by Illa Miller, Aaron Putze of the Iowa Soybean Association in Ankeny spoke on the many uses of the soybean.

The class then traveled to JWV Pork at 2504 Quince Avenue where Heidi Vittetoe delivered a presentation entitled “This Little Piggy Went to Market”. Then the group traveled to Cuddeback Farms at 1691 250^th Street to hear a presentation from Jim and Jane Cuddeback before returning to the fairgrounds to wrap up with Mitchell Hora with Continuum Ag on “Soil Health”.

Volunteer leaders of the day were Amanda Russell, Jordan Hesseltine and Rachel Fishback. The day was sponsored by the Washington County Farm Bureau.

For questions, please contact Michelle Redlinger, Washington Chamber of Commerce Community Coordinator at 319-653-3272