Agriculture in the spotlight this month

June is planting month in Carson Valley and while “Aloha, Carson Valley” is today’s Carson Valley’s Day Parade theme, the parade will be passing flower baskets hanging along Main Street thanks to efforts of Douglas, Smith Valley high school students and China Spring Youth Camp.

Last weekend, Douglas High School students sold out during thier plant sale.

The plant sale took a break while changes were made at the high school, but people were ready for it to be back after the students sold out their inventory.

With all the plants gone at the high school, the hanging baskets are one way Gardnerville celebrates the Valley’s agricultural heritage.

On May 30, Douglas High School FFA students Whitney Walters, Bliss Moody and Gracie Watts were guiding Minden Elementary School children through a virtual reality pollination video inside the Farm Bureau’s Ag Wagon.

University of Nevada, Reno, agriculture student Lander Smith provided the students with the ins, but mostly outs of milking a cow.

He asked the Minden Elementary School kindergarteners if they could tell whether the big plastic cow was a bull or a heifer, and they all knew.

Beekeeper Daunelle Wulstein talked to the children about bees.

She showed them the protective clothing beekeepers wear.

Between Ag in the Classroom and Ag Heritage Days, the Nevada Farm Bureau contacted 683 students in Douglas County, more than a tenth of its outreach, so far during 2023.

That outreach included distributing magazines and books about water in agriculture and sheep and wool in the Silver State.