Virginia Tech’s Southern Piedmont Agricultural Research and Extension Center (SPAREC) celebrated its 20th Family & Farm Day on Saturday, September 13, 2025.
Family and Farm Day has been held on the second Saturday in September at the station on Darvills Road (Rt. 40) east of Backstone since 2005. The non-profit event brings together experts in the agricultural and natural resources fields (and more) to make a one-stop source of family-friendly, educational fun.
This year, the center welcomed 1,006 guests from 16 Virginia counties and from three states (PA, WV, and FL). Visitors participated in many interactive activities and displays, including making butter, shelling ears of corn, crawling through a “soils tunnel,” walking through a butterfly tent, making pinecone bird feeders, the Virginia Agricultural Mobile Education Unit (Virginia State University), and examining plant disease microorganisms under a microscope.
They could interact with animals like beef cattle, alpacas, goats, and chicks. Children also played in the always popular “corn box” (picture a sandbox filled with loose, dried corn), took rides in a barrel train, navigated their way through a corn maze, fished for “backyard bass,” made nature crafts, and even enjoyed free snow cones.
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