By DIANE GASPER-O'BRIEN

dobrien@dailynews.net

They learned Kansas is the bread basket to the world and that things you probably never would have imagined are by-products of a cow. And they learned something that a lot of people take for granted.

"We are in the food business," Harold Kraus told a group of local fifth-graders Wednesday at Kids Ag Day at his farm southwest of Hays near Antonino.

"Every bite of food you eat comes from a farm," said Kraus, a moderator for one of the 11 different stations teaching the children about farm life. "Maybe not from Hays, or not from a Kansas farm, and maybe not even (a farm) in the United States. But it's from a farm somewhere."

Fourth-graders from local elementary schools have been visiting the Kraus farm for the past decade or so to learn about numerous aspects of farm life ranging from safety to the cost of machinery, from how animals are cared for to how crops are grown.

Last year, the ag day got rained out, so teachers and administrators this year asked Kansas Farm Bureau, the main sponsor of the event, if this year's fifth-graders also could take in what they missed as fourth-graders.

Barbara Roberts was glad to hear the news. Roberts, a longtime fifth-grade teacher at Lincoln Elementary School, always wondered what she was missing when the fourth-graders took their annual field trip.

"I always wondered what it was," Roberts said. "I enjoyed reading the stories the fourth-graders did about what they'd learned out there."

Roberts grew up on a farm but said she was surprised how much she didn't know about farms of today.

"It was fabulous, so educational," she said. "My family is still (on the farm), but it is truly amazing how much information I didn't know, especially the way they do things now."

Jason Schneider of Radke Implement Inc. in Hays said there is no question it's a popular event. Numerous adults accompanied the students to the farm Wednesday, and more are expected today -- the fourth-graders' turn for their field trip.

"I can't believe how this has grown," Schneider said. "I've been doing this for six or seven years at least, and I remember when it used to be the teacher and a chaperone from each school. Now look at all the parents that are coming out, too.

"We are an ag-based community, good for them to learn about these things," added Schneider, who explained to the children about raising crops, all the way from planting them to harvesting them.

The moderators also include skills the students use each and every day themselves.

"How many of you like math and reading?" he asked one of the groups. "A farmer uses both of those every day."

Other stations included a nature walk, soils, and sunflowers and birds.

One of the most visual lessons came at the rain simulator station, manned by Kraus himself.

It showed the progression of farming with the old clean-till method of farming that resulted in a lot of water run-off and soil erosion to the no-till methods of today.

Kraus explained how farmers lost about half of the fertility with clean-till but the no-till method protects soil from erosion while building organic matter in the process.

"We're able to grow crops we weren't able to grow before on our dry land like corn and soybeans," Kraus said.

No matter what a farmer does, though, he said, the final outcome of a crop also depends on Mother Nature.

"We're very dependent on the weather, because sun, water and soil are the big three we need to grow food," Kraus said. "That's why you hear farmers around talking about the weather."