The long length of new business on the Pike County Farm-City Committee’s agenda Tuesday could have sent committee members scampering for the door. Instead, the members buckled their seatbelts for a fast takeoff.

The award-winning committee of the Pike County Chamber of Commerce is a dedicated, hardworking group, said Committee Chair Deborah Huggins-Davis. And, the fall is an especially busy time of year for the committee as it joins other Farm-City committees nation-wide to celebrate National Farm-City Week November 22-28.

The first item on the committee’s agenda was the Third-Grade Farm Day on September 24 at Cattleman Park.

“All third graders in Pike County are invited to participate in Farm Day,” Huggins-Davis said. “They learn about day-to-day life on the farm and participate in hands-on activities. They also get to be up close to some farm animals—cows, horses and chickens.”

The committee voted to make a monetary donation to assist with lunch for the volunteers at Farm Day. The students bring sack lunches.

The Pike County Farm-City Committee is a perennial blue ribbon winner at the Pike County Shriners County Fair. The committee will, once again, have a booth at the fair the first week in October. The booth will follow the 2019 National Farm-City Week theme, “Keep Alabama Growing.”

Other dates set by the Farm-City Committee include the Job Swap on October 10.

“The Job Swap is a day when a member of the farming community and a member of the city community swap jobs for a day,” Huggins-Davis said. “This year Pike County Probate Judge Michael Bunn and poultry and cattle farmer Heath Wesley will swap jobs. The Farm-City Swap will be an enlightening experience for both and fun, too.”
The Farm-City Banquet will be at 6 p.m. on November 11 at Cattleman Park. The banquet features the awards program that honors members of the rural and urban communities that have made significant contributions to the relationship between the farm and city during the year.

Jeff Kervin, chair of the awards committee, said the public is invited to nominate individuals for the 2019 Farm City awards that include beef, poultry, timber, row crops, conservation, young farmer, youth, century and heritage farms, specialty crop, service to agriculture and business.

Kervin said the nomination forms are not complicated and the information should be easy to acquire. The nomination forms are available at the Pike/Bullock Farm Service Agency, the Pike County Extension Office and the Pike County Chamber of Commerce.

The committee also discussed the annual Farm-City tour with the possibility of visiting Rex Lumber.

Tickets for the Pike County Farm-City will be available from members of the Farm City committee members or the Pike County Chamber.