BUTTONWILLOW, Calif. -- The California State University Bakersfield 60 plus club got a firsthand experience at farm life.

The CSUB 60 plus club is well-known and highly visible on the university campus.

You see them at swim meets, graduation and the popular CSUB barbecue; a group of 250 volunteers who spend countless hours helping fill the gaps where bodies and a friendly smile are needed.

They also make up one of the oldest classrooms at the school.

It looks and sounds like any other classroom -- students asking questions, professors offering insight -- except it’s not your ordinary classroom.

The historic Tracy Ranch, better known as the Buttonwillow Land and Cattle Company, held this year's elder college.

Jack Frey, with the BLCC said, “I'm happy to see senior citizens thirst for knowledge, learn about surrounds what's going on in the world."

The students were given a tour of the ranch including a trip to the farmer's coop gin in Buttonwillow where cotton is shredded, dried, cleaned, de-linted, cleaned again and then compressed into 500 pound bales to be shipped off to textile mills.

During the season, the gin runs all day producing hundreds of bales a day.

Students got the chance to meander their way through the co-op, which was a real hands on experience for many of them.

For many, it was their first time to a cotton gin; one that left them speechless.

The elder college students got to witness a branding demonstration and also watch a Ferrier go to work shoeing a horse before sitting down to a cowboy lunch.

The CSUB 60 plus club was founded in 1986 and volunteers about 2,500 hours a year.

If you'd like to join, dues are $40 a year.

Contact the university alumni affairs office at 654-3211.