One Nation, Under God

Burgers, booths and more at Ag Day

Though national Ag Day was on Tuesday, March 21, Phillips County observed the national holiday last Friday, March 24, on the corner of Central Ave and 2nd Street East.

Malta's City Hall was the venue for the event that provided hundreds of Phillips County residents with food, fun, education as well as competition and contests.

Ann Shettel and Marko Manoukian of the Phillips County Extension office organized the event.

"I think it's been going good," Shettel said one hour into the event. "It's been busy. The CattleWomen just finished up with their pie and cupcake contest and the burgers smell good from across the road."

The Phillips County Volunteer Fire Department prepared its yearly burger feed that served 600 burgers, 60 pounds of grilled onions, 40 pounds of fish burgers, 24 gallons of beans on flat top grills and six bean roasters.

"It was real steady and I think we did really well," Malta Fire Department City Chief Greg Boos said. "We went through almost 600 burgers and there have been a lot of compliments on everything. It was a good turnout with a really good day. We would like to thank everyone for coming out and supporting us."

The burgers were served on buns made at Malta High School with help from the school cafeteria chefs.

Though the event provides food, fun, entertainment, giveaways and is similar to that of a science fair, the event was made for awareness.

"To teach and to make the public aware of how much agriculture is in our community, how strong we are and just to know where everything comes from," Shettel said.

It's unlikely that the annual celebration can completely shift the economical output for local agricultural businesses, but it doesn't hurt to show appreciation in a county that depends on it.

"It's our only effort on a local basis to celebrate rural communities and agricultural production," Manoukian said. "That's its main function. Do we change the universe with it? No, but it's our little way of showing our respect for the people that produce food and live in rural communities."

The event featured a couple of venders that displayed new technology. Todd's Technology featured a demonstration of Google Home, a device that a user can control with the sound of their voice. Triangle Communications raffled off a new Apple Mini 4 tablet.

"It has been awesome," Anne Boothe of Triangle Communications said. "We have had a lot of people stop in and ask questions about our services and products."

In today's world agriculture is often tied to technology and tech plays an integral role in the business.

"We've done tremendous job in the past few years with Triangle Mobile, our sister company, in installing cell towers throughout Phillips County," Boothe said. The First State Bank featured a raffle for $100. The Senior Center hosted a raffle for 10 meal tickets. Art's Furniture had a raffle for a Danby mini-fridge. The Coalition of Healthy Choices and ReAct held an exhibit that featured a new education game called "Name that Drug," which was both informative and educational. The game featured 18 possible drug answers in trivia form through the spin of a wheel.

"It just kind of opens your eyes," Carol Smith of the Coalition of Healthy Choices said. "It makes you aware of what is going on even in small communities."

The state of our country's agricultural outlook since the 2016 year left area farmers and ranchers hoping for a better outcome this year.

"Farmers and ranchers are hopeful that the Ag economy can recover from the $24 billion dollars that it lost in 2016, as we move forward to 2017 and beyond," Manoukian said.

The CattleWomen held an Adult Pie and Youth Cupcake Competition. Carrie Perry won the Adult Pie competition, with her Sugar Cookie Crumble Swirl Pie entry. Second place went to Rosa Witmer, who made a Crumble Berry Pie and third place went to Kacee McNally, who had a Coconut Cream Pie entry.

"I took it a little differently," McNally said. "Instead of the traditional crust, I did an oatmeal based crust with brown sugar and flour and it turned out pretty good."

Kayla Ottinger won the Youth Cupcake competition with her Green Easter Egg entry while defeating her older brother, Carson Ottinger who entered Blueberry and Cherry Pie themed cupcakes.

"I like Easter Eggs," Kayla said offering her inspiration behind her entry.

The younger Ottinger mentioned that she had made cupcakes before and that her favorite type was vanilla. She was also unsure what she would do with her prize money but expressed that she would be eating the Jack Link's Jerky she won.

"She might finish it in two sittings," mother Katie Ottinger said.

Kayla was "surprised" to see that she had won the competition.

Older brother Carson seemed conflicted with his entry that started off as a Cowboy Hat theme but due to timing issues, he changed his strategy and used M&Ms to mimic a pie.

"I was kind of disappointed that my sister beat me," Carson said noting that he would've won if he stuck to the original plan.

 

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