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Ag majors host activity week

Students with South Campus majors are setting out to prove that agriculture is “not just sows, cows, and plows anymore.”

The “South Campus Week,” designated by Ag Hill Council, is designed to bring together organizations on South Campus and share with non-South Campus students what is going on in modern agricultural industries.

Cordele senior Ashley Buford said it is “sad that the education on agriculture is so low, people don’t know why it is necessary anymore.” Even in the South Campus colleges, she said people “tend to get segregated into our own departments.”

Brice Nelson, Ag Hill Council adviser, wrote in an e-mail interview Thursday that he hopes students will “understand better the role agriculture plays in the areas of science, technology, communications, education, research, business, medicine, and the environment.”

South Campus Week begins tonight with a cookout at D.W. Brooks Hall from 5:30 to 8:00. Tuesday features Agricultural Awareness Day at Tate Plaza from 8:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m., and from Thursday through Saturday the 35th annual Great Southland Stampede Rodeo will be in town.

The cookout is open to the public and a ticket is only required for the meal, said Ward Black, a senior from Commerce and a member of Ag Hill Council, in a telephone interview Thursday. It will “bring together organizations within South Campus and connect them together and with the University community as a whole.”

Agricultural Awareness Day is hosted by Sigma Alpha Professional Agricultural Sorority. Kayla Calhoun, a sophomore from Colquitt, is the committee chair for the event, which will showcase research and events that are being done in the three South Campus colleges. “We hope that our diverse array of displays and interactive exhibits will hold people’s attention long enough to learn about the current, relevant research that departments are performing, and leave with a new respect for the field of agriculture and those who study it,” she said in an interview Thursday.

Of all three events, the rodeo is the one receiving the most publicity, ranging from radio advertisements to Facebook groups. Even JR’s Baitshack is involved.

Block & Bridle, the organization hosting the rodeo, partnered with the owner of JR’s to “offer a shot and a shirt deal,” said Buford, who is a rodeo co-chair. Buford said the shot offered was called the “drunken bronco” and was such a hit that all of the shirts were sold out by Thursday.

The rodeo-which is the only student-run Professional Rodeo Cowboy’s Association rodeo- has student night on Thursday and “Tough Enough to Wear Pink” night on Friday.

Buford said on Friday night Block & Bridle will donate a portion of their proceeds to the Hope Foundation, the amount dependant on the number of people who come dressed in pink-$1 per audience member, $5 per contestant and $10 per winning contestant.

“I think right now people really don’t think too much about South Campus,” wrote Katie Gazda, a freshman from Athens, in an e-mail interview Thursday. “With the events of South Campus Week.members of the entire student body will be able to see that there really is more to South Campus than what initially meets the eye.”

The term “agriculture” brings very different images to mind depending on students’ backgrounds, many of them those of sows, cows and plows. South Campus Week will hopefully “clarify misconceptions” about agriculture, Gazda wrote.

John Harlan, a junior from Evans, for example, wrote in an e-mail interview Wednesday that agriculture made him think of “rednecks, F-150s, and a nice pinch of Copenhagen.”

Marley Goldin, a sophomore from Rockville, Maryland, wrote in an e-mail interview Wednesday that she thinks of “farms and planting and mass production of crops.”

Many also associate agriculture with animal mistreatment. While “[inhumane treatment] has been seen in the past,” the Block & Bridle works their rodeo by the books, Buford said. The livestock that will be shown in the Great Southland Stampede Rodeo are “treated like athletes.”

“[The Professional Rodeo Cowboy's Association] has a huge booklet on animal welfare issues,” said fellow rodeo co-chair Rachel Patrick in a phone interview Saturday. She said PRCA goes “above and beyond” to ensure proper treatment of animals, including a policy requiring an on-call veterinarian.

Calhoun said she hopes South Campus Week will convey the opportunities agriculture provides. “Agriculture is a vital part of the American economy,” she said. “If it fails, it will take everything else down with it.”