Town of Sun Prairie farm to host 2015 Farm Technology Days
Excerpted from Wisconsin State Journal
By Rob Schultz
By the time Wisconsin Farm Technology Days is held in Dane County in 2015, the host farm will be showcased as the quintessential state dairy operation — 21st century style.
The Statz Brothers Farm, which was announced as the host farm at a Monday press conference, is expecting to be milking around 4,000 Holsteins and running 5,500 acres of corn, soybeans, forage and small grains when the prestigious, three-day event begins on the town of Sun Prairie site on Aug. 25, 2015.
Also, it already owns the county’s first manure digester and will add more state-of-the-art equipment needed for a growing business that includes three generations of farmers from two families and 75 full-time employees.
Dane County Executive Joe Parisi said the Statz farm exemplifies how dairy farming in Wisconsin and Dane County has shed its image as small, single-family operations by dotting the rural landscape with multi-family businesses and high ecological standards.
“They reflect what makes Dane County farms so special. They are the perfect family to host Farm Technology Days,” Parisi said.
Farm Technology Days spotlights the latest developments in production agriculture, including practical applications and recent research and technological developments. It’s one of the largest agricultural shows in the state each year and attracts more than 60,000 attendees and more than 600 commercial and educational vendors.
“We feel it’s time to give back to the community what it has given to us over the past several years,” Joe Statz said. “We’d like to teach the community what we do and what the family farm is all about.”
The Statz farm will be the third from Dane County to host Farm Technology Days. Parisi said the event is important to the state’s most productive agricultural county, which has 3,331 farms covering 535,756 acres. The county reports that agriculture sales here are $3.45 billion annually. Agriculture also accounts for 16,767 jobs in the county and $1.2 billion to county income, Parisi said.
