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Farm Tech Days come alive with success

Lynn Grooms
Jul 27, 2021
Jul 27, 2021

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Gideon Cobosco, 6, and Arlo Cobosco, 2, enjoy visiting with a 2.5-month-old Holstein-Angus bull calf. Their mother, Elizabeth Cobosco, says the boys love animals and discovering new things. She helped her uncle milk cows when she was a youngster and said she wants to give her sons a chance to experience agriculture as well.

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Huntsinger Farms displays a Gallenberg harvester in Innovation Square.

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Ferguson's Orchards apple-picking equipment

Ferguson's Orchards displays an apple-picking platform in Innovation Square. The Ferguson family also shows Pazazz apple trees in the display. The family in 2014 planted 40,000 Pazazz trees at their orchard. That makes them the largest Pazazz growers in the Midwest, according to the company.

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Keith Hinse and Thor Hermanson provide mustard samples

Keith Hinse, left, and Thor Hermanson, employees of Silver Spring Foods, provide samples of mustard to attendees of Farm Technology Days. Visitors could sample Beer 'n Brat, Yellow and Smoky Applewood mustards.

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Judy Yanda samples a 'Virgin Mary' made with horseradish grown at Huntsinger Farms and processed at Silver Spring Foods. Yanda says she grows horseradish herself at her Manitowoc County farm. She also processes it in a blender and uses it in a lot of foods she cooks. Yanda raises alpacas, chickens, ducks and geese.

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Gov. Tony Evers, Sunem Beaton-Garcia and Adam Wehling

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, right, is greeted by Sunem Beaton-Garcia, left, and Adam Wehling at the Chippewa Valley Technical College exhibit. Beaton-Garcia is the college's president; Wehling is the dean of energy, agriculture and transportation. They tell Evers about the youth and career displays at the exhibit. Agricultural students are sought-after job candidates by employers, Wehling says.

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Eric Rygg, right, talks to Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers about displays in Innovation Square at the Wisconsin Farm Technology Days in Eau Claire County. Rygg, along with his family, hosted the event July 20-22 at Huntsinger Farms near Eau Claire. Evers visited each display in Innovation Square, learning about new technologies and their businesses. Rygg, along with his brother Ryan Rygg and their mother, Nancy Bartusch, owns Huntsinger Farms as well as its subsidiary Silver Spring Foods.

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Opening day of Wisconsin Farm Technology Days in Eau Claire County

Day 1 of the Wisconsin Farm Technology Days in Eau Claire County draws between an estimated 16,800 and 18,200 attendees, not including youth age 12 and younger, according to Lee Caraher, chair of the event's publicity and promotion committee. The number includes about 620 volunteers.

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A new Wisconsin chapter of the Farmer Veteran Coalition exhibits at the 2021 Wisconsin Farm Technology Days. From left are organizers Jim Paquette, Sarah Cope and Joe Koch.

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A crowd gathers outside the Rural Event Center as Chris Kroeze of Barron, Wisconsin, sings inside. He was a finalist in season 15 of 'The Voice.'

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A group waits for a tour July 20 of Huntsinger Farms, as part of the 2021 Wisconsin Farm Technology Days in Eau Claire County.

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A demonstration plot planted to horseradish stands behind an Eau Claire County 2021 Farm Technology Days sign.

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Tractor Central displays Old Glory, hanging from a John Deere forage harvester.

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Horseradish is a perennial plant of the family Brassicaceae. It's a root vegetable, cultivated and used worldwide as a spice and condiment. The species is probably native to southeastern Europe and western Asia.

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Chippewa Valley Bean Company offers a plot of dark-red kidney beans for the event's attendees to see. The Menomonie, Wisconsin-based company is considered to be North America's largest processor and exporter of the beans.

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Farmers experience the ride of a John Deere 8RX 370 four-track tractor. The tractor has a maximum 407-horsepower- and 370-horsepower-rated engine.

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Chris Kroeze performs at 2021 Wisconsin Farm Technology Days

Chris Kroeze, runner-up of season 15 of 'The Voice,' entertains a huge crowd on opening day of the 2021 Wisconsin Farm Technology Days. A native of Barron, Wisconsin, he performs three acoustic concerts during the event.

Lynn Grooms/Agri-View

Lynn Grooms

Lynn Grooms

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. – The grounds of the 2021 Wisconsin Farm Technology Days in Eau Claire County truly came to life July 20-22. There were large crowds of people excited to be at a farm show again after more than a year of weathering the COVID-19 pandemic. Initial estimates are that more than 52,000 visitors attended the three-day show, shattering attendance projections. The familiar striped tents were there. So were the colorful equipment displays and fun ride-and-drives.

Lynn Grooms writes about the diversity of agriculture, including the industry’s newest ideas, research and technologies as a staff reporter for Agri-View based in Wisconsin.