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Students get hands-on experience with ag technology

More than 160 Central Wisconsin high school students received hands-on exposure to agriculture technology Wednesday.  Melissa Heise with Swiderski Equipment in Mosinee tells Brownfield their Ag Tech Exploration Day targets students from on and off the farm to experience how high-tech is changing farming. “There’s so many opportunities in agriculture and you don’t have to have an ag background or grow up on a farm to work in those fields, so we’re hoping to maybe excite some of those kids about the some of the opportunities once they see how technology is being used.”

Heise says it’s important to get the next generation interested in agriculture careers. “And we offer opportunities for students to job shadow here. We do internships. I think once students really start to learn what opportunities there are, they’re pretty amazed at what they can do.”

Part of Wednesday’s program included the formal presentation of an equipment simulator to the Mosinee FFA program from New Holland, Raven Industries, and Swiderski Equipment.  “They’re getting a hands-on learning simulator so that they can learn about things like auto-guidance, like GPS, how equipment uses technology to function more efficiently and more accurately.”

The Mosinee FFA chapter was one of only five in the nation to submit a winning application for the training tools.

AUDIO: Melissa Heise discusses Ag Tech Exploration Day with Brownfield’s Larry Lee