Shaping A Showcase Volunteers, Education at Heart of Farm
Technology Days
To travelers driving past sites
selected for the annual Wisconsin Farm Technology Days show,
it might appear that the expanse of brightly colored tents and
outdoor exhibits springs up, circus-like, overnight. But in
preparation and sheer scope, a Ringling Brothers extravaganza
couldn’t match the organizational effort and volunteer
commitment it takes to stage the state’s largest agricultural
exhibition.
Detailed planning for each show
begins nearly four years prior to the erection of “Tent
City,” the striking, 60-acre expanse of displays that
is the hub of a rural showplace that covers a total of more
than 400 acres of prime farmland.
As the name implies, Farm Technology
Days showcases cutting-edge improvements in production agriculture,
including practical applications of recent research and technological
innovations. The latest farming methods and equipment, as well
as a host of products and services related to rural living,
are also on display, as is information concerning farm business
structure. Open to all who are interested, the show offers a
lot of education for the $3 admission charge.
“Exhibitors this year will
come from 24 different states and Canada,” said Glenn
Thompson, general manager of Farm Technology Days, Inc., which
helps develop the organizational framework for each show.
What’s In A Name?
Heading for its 52nd run, the
event during its first 50 years was known as Wisconsin Farm
Progress Days. In 2003 it donned a new title, partly because
the focus on advancing agricultural technology had intensified.
However, Thompson admitted that
a major stimulus for the change was the increasing difficulty
the organization had with an Illinois firm called the Farm Progress
Company, which pushed for exclusive rights to the “Farm
Progress” name. Thompson related that when the first Wisconsin
show was staged in 1954, the Farm Progress Company was running
similar expositions in Illinois and Iowa.
“The company agreed we could
use ‘Farm Progress’ as long as the word ‘Wisconsin’
was in front of it,” Thompson explained. But over the
years, there was an increasing tendency to use the name without
the state prefix, and that irked the Illinois company, particularly
after a recent ownership change.
“Organizers believe the
name change will help dispel the appearance that they are tied…to
the Farm Progress Company,” stated a 2003 press release
announcing the new title of Wisconsin Farm Technology Days.
Clark County Hosts
For 2005, the exposition will
call Clark County home on July 12–14. Clark Electric Co-op
members Bob, Sally, Mitch, and Michelle Malm will offer their
home, dairy operation, and land near Loyal to host nearly 650
commercial and educational exhibitors and about 100,000 visitors.
“It’s huge, like a
little city,” observed Bob Moseley, director of operations
at Clark Electric Co-op, who took charge of extending electric
and telephone service to the Tent City grounds. “I suppose
you’re looking at an area the equivalent of four city
blocks. We sank 38 poles, hung 37 transformers, and strung more
than two miles of line,” he continued, noting the four-man
crew from Clark Electric began its initial two-week construction
job in February on one of the coldest days of winter.
Moseley explained that since the
Tent City site and some of the demonstrations planned for the
2005 show would be on Malms’ alfalfa fields, co-op lineworkers
needed to erect the electric system before spring to protect
the plantings. Shows are planned so that forage crops such as
alfalfa are featured in field demonstrations during two consecutive
years; fall harvesting of corn and soybeans is highlighted at
a fall show every third year.
Moseley’s experience heading
the utility committee and organizing just one aspect of show
preparation illustrates the scale of activity that engages more
than a dozen standing committees and as many special committees
that put together each Farm Technology Days show.
Inspiration, Organization
The sparkplug for the very first
Wisconsin show, according to Thompson, was University of Wisconsin
Director of Cooperative Extension (later Chancellor) Henry Ahlgren,
who got the idea for an agricultural showcase while attending
the National Plowing Contest in Augusta, Wisconsin, in 1953.
“Henry thought it would provide an opportunity to take
the research base of the university to the local level,”
said Thompson
Ahlgren assembled a panel of representatives
of state and federal agriculture agencies, the UW College of
Agriculture, and UW Extension to serve on a governing board
for what would be called Wisconsin Farm Progress Days. The event
was held for the first time in Waupaca County the year after
the Plowing Contest. Later, according to Thompson, representatives
of other state agencies, the technical colleges, and agribusinesses
were added to the governing board.
The original, strong connection
to the university is why the UW Extension office in a potential
host county continues to be the routine first stop for Thompson
in exploring venues for future shows. It’s also no coincidence
that Thompson himself worked for decades with Extension, starting
at the county level and eventually retiring as an associate
dean on the Madison campus. He went right from retirement in
1991 to be assistant general manager of Farm Progress Days.
Thompson became general manager in 1993.
Local Endorsement
“If the county Extension
people are interested, the next step is to get the county board
to approve a resolution agreeing to take this on,” he
said of a process that begins 3-1/2 to 4 years before each show.
Thompson said the resolution must include up-front funding of
$20,000 (which is refunded following the show) and money to
pay the salary of Farm Technology Days’ marketing coordinator,
who handles contracts with all exhibitors.
“The real decision makers
of each show are the members of a county executive committee,
named once the county board passes its resolution,” said
Thompson, whose job is to regularly meet with and help guide
that committee. In addition to that executive committee, typically
headed by a county Extension agent, there will normally be two-dozen
committees selected to cover such operations as media relations,
grounds and security, parking, admissions, food, first aid,
safety, field demonstrations, education, youth, utilities, and
other areas. Chairs and co-chairs of these groups marshal local
volunteers (organizers say as many as 1,000) into action as
the event approaches. And, of course, a major, early decision
is deciding on a suitable farm or farms to host the show.
Local executive committees abide
by policies and procedures set by the Farm Technology Days corporate
body, Thompson said, explaining there are specific sets of responsibilities
that ultimately get assigned to working committees.
For example, immediately after
the close of one show, the host county for the following year
must take charge of street signs, trams (tractor-pulled wagons
that hold 40 people each), and electrical gear belonging to
the corporation, placing it in secure storage until needed the
next year.
The corporate board also specifies
the division of income from the show—70 percent going
to the host county and 30 percent to Farm Technology Days, Inc.
Growth
In his early job as a county Extension
agent, Glenn Thompson headed the local executive committee in
Sheboygan County for the 1975 Farm Progress Days. When asked
about how the exhibition has grown, he readily contrasts today’s
statistics with those of 30 years ago.
“In 1975 there were 310
lots in Tent City and no agribusiness tents,” he recalled.
“This year we have 828 outdoor lots and 214 agribusiness
booths in the tents. I’m told they are all sold.”
He also said 50 acres has been added to the space host farmers
must have for field demonstrations.
For attendance figures, Thompson
says he doesn’t like to speculate publicly about numbers
of visitors to upcoming three-day shows, though most press releases
project attendance will approach 100,000.
“When I took the job I decided
not to guess about attendance. You get in kind of a trap that
each show has to be bigger and better than the year before or
it’s somehow not as successful.
“I figure, as long as the
exhibitors are happy…”
Good exposure for products, services,
and educational offerings is what makes for contented exhibitors
and vendors. Their continued—and growing—presence
at Wisconsin’s well-organized, premier agricultural exposition
demonstrates the show’s effectiveness and tells a tale
of success spanning more than a half-century.—Perry Baird
Power Play
Who will decide Wisconsin’s energy priorities?
Gaining access to a few hundred
million dollars may be the first requirement in building a power
plant of significant size, but it’s not necessarily the
toughest. After the financing is locked in and the plan passes
muster with perhaps a dozen government entities, anybody with
the wherewithal to pay an attorney or act convincingly like
one can take his best shot at overturning what the regulators
decide. These days, fewer and fewer such shots go untaken.
The idea of denying John Q. Citizen
the opportunity to go up against Behemoth Power & Gas in
defense of his property or an environmental concern is simply
foreign to the American concept of governance. But so is the
idea that such controversies should go unresolved as long as
one party is willing to wait the other out.
Even as the state increases incentives
for local municipalities to host infrastructure projects, examples
arise of local officials growing more contentious over siting
decisions. It also grows increasingly clear that planning for
any major infrastructure project must take into account the
years required for it to be fully litigated in every available
venue.
In Northern Wisconsin, a transmission
project announced a decade ago, submitted for regulatory review
in 1999 and approved—twice—by the Public Service
Commission, remained stalled by one county denying use of existing
transmission right-of-way across publicly owned land. In Southeast
Wisconsin, the biggest generation project in state history,
also proposed in the last decade, sited adjacent to an existing
power plant and cleared through state and federal regulatory
review, sat on hold because of a Dane County court decision.
At this writing, the state Supreme
Court was preparing to rule on an appeal of the Dane County
case, and pending legislation sought to address both that matter
and the stalled transmission project. Though all those things
may have been acted upon as you read this, the debate won’t
have ended.
Past No Precedent?
Facing a roomful of industry professionals,
WE Energies Vice President Larry Salustro didn’t equivocate.
Lacking the output from two proposed new generating units at
its Oak Creek power plant site, he said, his Milwaukee-based
utility would fall 1,800 megawatts short of required reserve
capacity by 2013.
Thinking that far ahead is essential
in the electric power industry, because under the best of circumstances,
regulatory review, permitting, and actual construction of a
major project are sure to take at least a few years.
That reality is further complicated
when opponents of a project exercise their right to repeated
review of permitting issues in multiple regulatory and judicial
forums, adding more years to the process.
The day after Salustro’s
briefing, March 30, the state Supreme Court heard arguments
in the WE Energies appeal of a November 2004 decision by Dane
County Circuit Judge David Flanagan. With WE Energies two permits
away from construction after an application process that began
nearly three years before, Flanagan ordered the utility to all
but start over. He ruled that Public Service Commission approval
to build could not legally be sought without every needed permit
in hand, and that different sites and fuel options had been
insufficiently considered.
This would overturn decades of
commission practice, as the PSC has routinely spurred the glacial
pace of regulatory review by granting approvals conditioned
on utilities obtaining needed permits.
Staff attorney Mike Stewart of
Wisconsin Public Power, Inc., an organization of municipal electric
utilities, said Flanagan’s decision contradicts the way
the PSC has administered state law “throughout my professional
life, which is to say at least 25 years. It will be more time-consuming,
more difficult if not impossible to get major projects certified
if the Dane County Circuit Court decision stands.”
Clashing Agendas
Stewart’s remarks came in a hearing of
the Assembly Committee on Energy and Utilities. Taking no chances
on how the Supreme Court might rule, Committee Chair Phil Montgomery
(R–Ashwaubenon) introduced a bill clarifying that the
PSC could, in fact, grant conditional approvals and that its
customary procedures were otherwise in order.
The bill appeared destined for
passage in both houses by late June, but in two late May hearings,
Montgomery locked horns with opponents of the Oak Creek project.
Prominent among them was Chip Brewer, director of worldwide
government relations for Racine’s S.C. Johnson Corp.
Johnson was the lead plaintiff
in the Dane County lawsuit, and Brewer told the committee his
company sees “a jobs crisis in southeastern Wisconsin”
because of the region’s non-attainment of federal air
quality standards. “It’s difficult for industry
to grow,” he said.
“I don’t think policy
makers understand the huge impact” of future emissions
from the Oak Creek units, Brewer said, drawing a challenge from
Montgomery, who asked if he understood the utility’s plan
promises a 60-percent net emissions reduction. Brewer rejected
the system-wide figure, saying he was concerned only with the
new plants.
And yet, Brewer’s understanding
of the non-attainment issue can’t be denied. At the time
of his testimony, S.C. Johnson had a request pending with the
Department of Natural Resources for permission to increase emissions
of volatile organic compounds—VOCs, the ingredients of
smog—by a net 96 tons annually at its own plant in Sturtevant,
also in the non-attainment area and not quite 10 miles upwind
of Oak Creek.
That permit request remains pending
and must pass Environmental Protection Agency review and a public
comment period before Johnson can increase its VOC emissions.
In an earlier hearing, Wisconsin
Electric Cooperative Association Manager David Jenkins testified
that WE Energies had been poorly rewarded for its efforts, noting
that some organizations now opposing Oak Creek previously extracted
environmental concessions from the company to buy their cooperation
in the project’s approval.
In addition to the dramatically
cleaner new plants proposed for Oak Creek, Jenkins said, the
utility’s overall generation plan calls for “the
biggest expansion of wind energy in state history. What did
WE Energies get for that? Lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit.”
Too Quiet Out There
It’s been about two decades
since Wisconsin utilities last built a major base-load power
plant and three since a major transmission line was added. Now,
with rising electrical demand and a new building cycle in progress,
a collision of interests wanting to set policy and enforce their
priorities was probably inevitable.
If opponents of specific projects
are quick to admonish the Legislature against hemming in judicial
prerogatives, lawmakers might be just as skeptical of being
told a long parade of regulatory commissioners of every political
description, stretching back more than a quarter-century, had
it all wrong.
A legal and regulatory framework
promoting discussion of varied fuel options and generation technologies
is indisputably desirable. It goes off the rails if the legal
system is used to push any chance of finality beyond the horizon
of sensible planning in anticipation of changing societal needs.
Whether that’s happened is precisely the question now
being settled.
Most of this state has not
experienced a seriously hot summer since 1995, when Madison
had 15 days above 90 degrees and, significantly, utilities were
not always able to meet demand. Service to some customers was
interrupted repeatedly that year and in 1997, when two major
power plants were beset by maintenance problems. More recent
summers have seen a relative handful of 90-degree days, with
none at all last year.
As Scott Neitzel, a former PSC
commissioner and now a Madison Gas and Electric vice president
told the Assembly Energy committee back in May, “Don’t
make the mistake of thinking this is just about Oak Creek. It’s
not. It’s about every major project moving forward.”
Neitzel added, “We have
to plan for 13 to 15 hot days, not zero like in 2004.”—Dave
Hoopman
Then and now—At
the 1953 National Plowing Contest, Wisconsin’s electric
co-ops introduced their mascot, Willie Wiredhand. The
co-ops floated a new symbol, Touchstone Energy, at the
2001 Farm Progress Days in Rock County. The 1963 Vernon
County show featured Miss Wisconsin Rural Electrification,
while visitors settled for Adams-Columbia Electric’s
Keith Wohlfert at the 1995 Washington County event.
The Show Goes On
Bob Moseley’s final project before he retires
has shaped up to be a big one. The director of operations at
Clark Electric Cooperative heads the Farm Technology Days (FTD)
committee responsible for electrifying the show’s sprawling
Tent City complex, a 60-acre tract near Loyal that includes
more than 1,000 lots and booths needing power.
Moseley said his work began three years ago after
Clark Electric’s then-CEO Dick Adler announced, “I
have a job for you.” Adler, a member of the committee
fashioning the Clark County show, tapped co-op resources to
assist with the huge undertaking.
Attending Farm Technology Days that were held
by other counties during the next two years, Clark Electric
personnel eyed the setup to get a feel for what would be required.
Extra Effort
This past February, Moseley and a crew spent two
weeks in the frozen field destined to accommodate Tent City,
erecting poles, transformers, and wire—most of it donated
by the co-op for the show’s use. A month out from the
show’s July 12 opening, co-op staff began assisting an
electrical contractor in making final hookups. The Clark Electric
board of directors agreed to donate the kilowatt-hours of electricity
used at the show.
Enthusiastic support is typical of electric co-op
attitude whenever the exposition locates on farms served by
co-op power suppliers, according to Glenn Thompson, FTD general
manager: “They’ve been super. I wish we had an electric
co-op every year,” he declared.
In addition to operational contributions, Wisconsin’s
electric co-ops are consistent exhibitors themselves at the
annual expositions. At the 1953 National Plowing Contest—
regarded as the show that inspired the first Wisconsin Farm
Progress Days—electric co-ops had an entire tent full
of displays.
Showing, Signing Off
Through the years, electric co-op personnel have
had a lot to show off, particularly as advances in electronic
technology progressed. Exhibits—often staffed by the co-ops’
Member Services Association—inform show goers about the
vital role cooperatively owned electric utilities play in the
economies of rural communities.
And, in keeping with the event’s 2003 name
change to spotlight “technology,” Moseley said Clark
Electric at this year’s show will display a brand-new
offering to rural dwellers by many electric co-ops: high-speed
Internet service via satellite, called WildBlue.
The day after the curtain falls on the 2005 show,
Moseley and his crews will be back at the site, dismantling
the electric distribution system they created for powering Tent
City. When that’s done, his plans for retirement kick
in.
Moseley’s 37-year career with the electric
co-op couldn’t go out on a more spectacular—or cooperative—note.
Wisconsin Dells
is famous for many things—resorts, amusement parks, an
abundance of restaurants (from rugged to ritzy), fudge, souvenir
shops, water parks, and entertainment of all sorts. But you
haven’t experienced the real Dells, and the reason for
all of today’s tourist trappings, until you’ve done
the Dells of the Wisconsin River by water. (The word “Dells”
is derived from the French word “dalles,” meaning
flat layered rock, and that is exactly what mades the Dells’
scenery so breathtaking.)
The first entrepreneur to bring Dells
sightseers to this spectacle of nature was lumber rafter Leroy
Gates, who purchased a pleasure boat in the mid-1800s. His business
venture ushered the quiet town of Wisconsin Dells into an era
of tourism that continues today.
In 1873, the first steamboats
arrived to replace the usual rowboats, and railroad companies
began to organize river excursions. The wave of tourism swelled.
Today, tourists in Wisconsin Dells
have many options for viewing the picturesque Dells by water.
Whether you are looking for a leisurely two-hour tour or a brisk
ride, the Dells Boat Tours offer options that navigate through
nature’s spectacular rocky formations, gulches, and grottos.
The double-deck steamboats represent
the leisurely way to see the scenery. One can opt for the rugged
Lower Dells tour or the more serene Upper Dells tour. The latter
features shaded, ferny glades and two scenic shore landings:
Stand Rock, where passengers can watch a specially trained dog
leap the five-foot chasm from the main cliff to the rock ledge,
and Witches Gulch, a glen with mysterious passgeways.
Tourists can save money by purchasing
a combined ticket that entitles them to the full tour—both
the Lower and Upper Dells. Cap the day off with a special sunset
dinner cuise on the Upper Dells, offering food, refreshments,
a leisurely stroll on torch-lit paths at the Witches Gulch shore
landing, and an enchanting view of the river at dusk.
If you like a little more speed
and excitement with your scenery, opt for a thrilling ride at
full throttle on one of the Dells Boat Tours’ jet boats,
or try the unique Wisconsin Ducks. The Ducks—amphibious
World War II vehices—travel across both land and water
for a beautiful view of the Dells and a look into Wisconsin’s
history. Riders pass relics of native Indian tribes and ghost
towns, such as the one-thriving City of Newport.
Whatever your style—by sedate
steamboat, thrilling jet boat, romantic sunset dinner, or the
versatile Duck—you’ll be rewarded by a spectacular
overview of the Dells when you take to the water.—Linda
Hilton
For more information, visit www.dellsboats.com
and www.wisconsinducktours.com
or call 608/254-8555. Tours are offered daily from early April
through October, weather permitting. In summer, tours depart
every 20 to 30 minutes between 8:30 a.m. and 7 p.m. In spring
and autumn, call for tour times (9 a.m.–4 p.m.).
