Conservation Districts across Kansas participated in the Agriland Booth at the 2015 Kansas State Fair. Located in the Pride of Kansas building, districts along with other Agriland partners, provided an interactive experience for children to learn more about agriculture. 

The Conservation Districts manned the Soil Tunnel Trailer (STT) which provided visitors the opportunity to walk through a tunnel trailer allowing them to get an underground look at Kansas soils. The soil tunnel trailer is a traveling museum used primarily to educate youth and adults about the relationship between their daily activities and the resulting effects on the soil and other natural resources.  The trailer highlights the soils in Kansas, water quality issues in Kansas and critters that live underground in Kansas through 3-D images. The STT will serve as a learning tool and backdrop for a variety of lessons at schools, field days, county fairs and other events. This year’s trailer had a crop theme and included captions in Spanish.

Throughout Agriland, visitors could also ride in a virtual combine, sift Kansas grown grain between their fingers, learn about livestock feed rations, and milk Blossom, the mechanical dairy cow.

Teachers who visit Agriland were able to sign up for free lesson plans provided by the Kansas Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom. These lesson plans connect classrooms to Kansas agriculture by exploring various facets of agriculture and learning how important and full of opportunities agriculture is.

The Soil Tunnel Trailer was sponsored by the Kansas Conservation Partnership. This included Kansas Conservation Districts, Kansas Association of Conservation Districts (KACD), Kansas Department of Ag-Division of Conservation (KDA-DOC) and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).  Over 46 volunteers were utilized to work the trailer alone!

Agriland is a collaborative effort of the Kansas Beef Council, Kansas Corn Commission, Kansas Cotton, Kansas Dairy Association, Kansas Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom, Kansas Grain Sorghum Commission, Kansas Soybean Commission, Kansas Sunflower Commission, Kansas Wheat, Kansas Conservation Partnership, Kansas Agri-Women and the Kansas Department of Agriculture.

For more information about the soil tunnel trailers in Kansas please visit the following websites @ soiltunneltrailerwk.com and soiltunneltrailer.com.

For more information about Agriland, check out the exhibit’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/kansasagriland or contact Robin Blume with Kansas Department of Ag at Robin.Blume@kda.ks.gov or 785-564-6756.