By STEVE BINDER
Illinois Correspondent

CARBONDALE, Ill. — Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s expanded Agri-culture Industry Days was hit with some bad weather, but the three-day event nonetheless drew nearly 1,500 ag enthusiasts – including some up-and-coming enthusiasts.

Take 17-month-old Carder Stuemke. The toddler with a smile from ear-to-ear couldn’t get enough of the horses he was able to tap on the nose whenever they bent down low enough, which was often. The petting zoo area always has been a popular attraction at the event, now in its seventh year and expanded this time to three days.

Odds are likely that Stuemke 17 years from now will purse a career in agriculture; his father, Chet Stuemke, is the manager of SIUC’s dairy farm.
“He loves all kinds of animals,” Stuemke told SIUC Chancellor Rita Cheng as she toured the ag grounds. Cheng, formally installed as chancellor on Friday, was the ag college’s keynote speaker on Saturday.

“One the things that attracted me to Southern Illinois Carbondale was its rich history in attracting students who are passionate about the fields they want to enter, and we do that in a big way here at the College of Agricultural Sciences,” she said.

While enrollment has declined overall at SIUC during the past two decades – from a high of about 25,000 students to about 20,000 now – the ag college continues to climb each year.

The ag college now has about 1,000 students.

Attracting more students was the primary goal for one of the three days, when approximately 750 high school seniors and juniors from throughout the region participated in a 4-H and FAA judging contest. This year’s Ag Days also included a horticulture contest, in addition to the regular livestock and dairy competitions.

“We certainly didn’t have the best weather, but we’re very happy with the turnout. Nothing beats seeing all the kids out here,” said ag college Dean Todd Winters.

Visitors to part of the college’s 2,000-acre network of agricultural facilities were treated to a host of de-monstrations, including beef ultrasounding, global information systems, landscape de-sign and care, among others. A free barbecue capped off the event on Saturday.

Cheng said the school’s ag college serves its students in two key ways. It continues to be a leader in ag research (the college last year received more than $17.1 million in research grants), particularly in soybean production, while also offering hands-on instruction not typically found at larger institutions.
“We have the brains of a top research university, and the heart of a small, friendly college,” she said.