The 2013 Wisconsin Farm Technology Days will be hosted by the Alex and Mary Olson family of Dallas, Wisconsin. Located just south of Rice Lake in Barron County, 700-acre Breezy Hill Dairy is home to some 500 cows milked in a flat-barn parlor.
In 2011 the show will be in Marathon County just north of Marshfield at the Ken and Karen Seehafer farm. The 2012 show will be hosted by Sugar Creek Farm and the Heideman Farms near New London in Outagamie County.
What started out as a light rain in Pierce County intensified as the morning continued prompting officials to cancel the remainder of the final day of Wisconsin Farm Technology Days.
One of the more popular displays at Wisconsin Farm Technology Days each year is the “Beef Tent”. A joint effort of a number of beef interests in the state, Nancy Thomas says this year’s tent features 13 different breeds plus representatives from the Wisconsin Cattlemen Association, NCBA, Cattlemen’s Beef Board, Wisconsin Beef Council and others. New this year is a large photo display compiled by University of Wisconsin students which depicts beef from conception to consumption. “There are even pictures of the birth of a calf.”
One of the features at the Mills Fleet Farm display this year is horse trainer Michael Richardson. He was an active horseman for as long as he can remember but things changed dramatically at age 20 when an automobile accident left his lower extremities paralyzed. He says that experience caused him to gravitate toward the horse as one of his early goals in rehabilitation was to regain enough strength to participate in an equine therapy program. Today he travels the country promoting harmony between horse and human.
It just wouldn’t be Wisconsin Farm Technology Days without the state’s ambassador for agriculture, Alice in Dairyland. Christine Lindner acts as an emcee in the Family Living Tent and the Youth Tent each day. This is certainly not Christine’s first experience with Wisconsin Farm Technology Days, in the past she has worked the show as a State FFA officer and last year she was a member of the media & public relations committee but she says working the show as “Alice” is the best.
In a couple of weeks she will be participating in another big event, the Wisconsin State Fair.
As the curtain comes down on this year’s show, the folks in Marathon County are ready to step up to the plate. Wisconsin Farm Technology Days 2011 will be July 12, 13 & 14 at Seehafer Acres just north of Marshfield. Keith Langenhahn is Chairman of the Marathon County Executive Committee; he says their crew is ready to take the reins.
Matt Joyce with the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board talks about the ever-changing consumer and the ever-changing way to communicate with those consumers.
Accelerated Genetics is a mainstay at Wisconsin Farm Technology Days, not only does the company participate in the show every year but Janet Keller serves on the Board of Directors for WFTD. She talks about the show, the company and what lies ahead for the dairy industry.
One of those “behind-the-scenes” changes at the show this year is the General Manager. Glen Thompson has retired and Ron Schuler has stepped up. The job has Schuler working with at least three different shows in various stages of development, from this show under way to the folks in Marathon County just one year away and Outagamie County just getting thing started. He took time on the first day of his first show to talk about his job.
Tom Gillis is a corn and soybean producer at Roberts, Wisconsin and serves on the Corn Promotion Board. He talks about technical advancements, the export market and the importance of upgrading the lock and dam system on the upper Mississippi River.
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