Loud moos and other barnyard noises will continue to fill the Brickyard this week through Thursday as part of Alpha Zeta’s Agriculture Awareness Week, which features tents with information booths and live animals such as baby chicks, cattle and pigs.
“We’re out here to educate the students and public about where their food comes from,” Amanda Novle, a junior in plant and soil science, said. “It doesn’t just come from the grocery store.”
Included in the week’s activities are opportunities to pet animals, eat lunch and watch contests.
“[Monday] we had the administrative agriculture Olympics. We had three administrators from CALS participate in an Egg Toss, Watermelon Crawl, Tractor Race and a Sunflower Seed Spittin’ contest,” Novle said. “Tomorrow we’re having a milking contest. Lunch will be served every day at 12:30.”
According to Jamie Jordan, a senior in animal science, Alpha Zeta, an agricultural fraternity, also invites other agriculture related clubs to come out and do fundraisers and whatever else they wish to do.
Lauren Mabry, a junior in animal science and poultry science, said the Poultry Science Club has a booth set up with informational pamphlets and an area for people to hold baby chicks.
“The Poultry Science Club has set up a chick booth where people can hold the baby chicks. We’ve got a tri-fold board that shows the activities we’re doing or we’ve done,” Mabry said. “We’re trying to education people about the industry.”
Ryan Amos, a freshman in chemical engineering, said the tents and animal exhibits looked cool.
“It made me think of home,” Amos said. “I live on a farm at home.”
Jordan said Alpha Zeta wants to present agriculture in a different way. One of those ways is through Hoover, a large steer with a hole in his stomach.
“We’re here to show people, to explain to them the difference between dairy cattle and beef cattle. We tell them the background story of why he has a hole in his stomach,” Jordan said. “He stays at our metabolism unit, which N.C. State owns. This particular hole goes into his rumen. It’s the reason all cattle can eat grass and humans can’t.”
Jordan said many people hold the misconception that cattle have four separate stomachs, but the reality is they simply have four parts to one stomach.
“You can actually stick your hand into the hole and touch his fistula. It’s used for research purposes; you can take samples from it to see how well he is digesting certain grasses or feeds.”
Jordan said most of the animals come from N.C. State-owned properties, like the swine unit, beef unit, dairy unit and small ruminate like goats and sheep.
Paul O’Leary, a freshman in management, said the experience was different from what he expected.
“I’m from the North and it was kind of strange to have a cow moo at me,” O’Leary said.
Jordan said she has a lot of people ask her if Hoover is mad because he moos a lot, but the reality is the steer is just a social animal.
“I tell them if he was mad, they would know it,” Jordan said. She said Hoover would be in the Brickyard 24 hours a day until Thursday afternoon when the booths pack up for the week.
