Pictured: Teachers and students enjoy a wagon ride through a barn at Smith’s Stock Farms
From Cornell Cooperative Extension of Steuben County,
Hornell, NY – On Thursday, June 11 and Friday, June 12, 2026, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Steuben County (CCE Steuben) and Smith’s Stock Farms hosted a Farm Tour for Steuben County elementary students participating in the Agriculture in the Classroom program. Over 700 students, teachers, and chaperones participated in the farm tour field trip. This exciting tour through a working dairy farm marks the end of a whole academic year of educational programming in local schools through CCE Steuben’s Agriculture in the Classroom program.
Students stopped at a variety of stations around the farm where they learned how the farm operates and followed the journey of dairy production from calf to dairy product distribution. At each station students were met by a presenter knowledgeable in the field of agriculture. Stops along the tour included the calf barn, the milk room, the mechanic’s shop, the milking parlor, and a tractor ride that took passengers around the property.
Students attending the Farm Tour field trip participated in a variety of hands-on activities including interacting with calves in the calf barn and holding baby chicks with a 4-H educator. They even learned how to milk a cow by hand using a model before stepping into the milking parlor where they saw how Smith’s Stock Farms uses robots and technology to milk their cows.
This field trip was organized as part of CCE Steuben’s Agriculture in the Classroom initiative, a program that brings agriculture education to elementary and middle schools across the county in an effort to encourage youth interest in agriculture and educate students about our food sources. Agriculture in the Classroom educators visit area schools throughout the school year with lessons on topics including corn growing, greenhouse agriculture, composting, soil, and more. Through this field trip students experience the agriculture that they have been learning about all year firsthand.
Presenters from CCE Steuben’s Agriculture in the Classroom program, Steuben County Soil and Water, Steuben County 4-H, SNAP-Ed as well as the family and staff at Smith’s Stock Farms helped to make this two-day program a success.
For more information about this program, call CCE Steuben at 607-664-2300 or visit PutKnowledgeToWork.org..
