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.

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Excerpted from Wisconsin State Journal
By Barry Adams

There are good reasons the White House selected Deb Carey to sit with first lady Michelle Obama during the State of the Union Tuesday night.

Carey, the New Glarus Brewing Co. co-founder, was first runner-up for the 2011 National Small Business Person of the Year and met with the president on small-business issues late last year. She’s also putting the wraps on a $7 million expansion at her Green County brewery, but the construction crews aren’t going away.

Carey told the State Journal on Monday that a $9 million expansion project will begin in April that will allow the brewery to double its production to 250,000 barrels. The 9,000-square-foot, yearlong project will primarily add more fermentation tanks and bring the brewery, which makes Spotted Cow and dozens of other craft brews, to over 100,000 square feet. The expansion will increase the number of employees from 75 to over 100 and further cement Carey and her brewmaster husband, Dan Carey, as one of the most innovative business couples in the state.

The story of Deb and Dan Carey has been well documented and enhanced by the fact that all of the beer brewed by the company is only sold in Wisconsin.

The Careys started their business in 1993 with a 10,000-square-foot brewery and in 2007 opened a $21 million, 75,000-square-foot brewing plant on the village’s south side. The just-completed expansion at the new brewery added more warehouse space and doubled the size of the visitor center.

Carey said she remains committed to selling her products only in Wisconsin because there is room for growth, even with the increasing number of new craft breweries that continue to come on line.

“There’s a lot of space for all the craft brewers to grow,” Carey said. “We’re just trying to keep up.”

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PRESS RELEASE: February 8, 2013

Dane County Executive Joe Parisi announced today that he has named David Phillips as the Director of the Office of Economic and Workforce Development.

Phillips brings experience working with Community Development Block Grants to the county and has worked for numerous Chambers of Commerce in Dane County. He also has extensive experience in the banking industry.

“David Phillips’ skills are a great match for our efforts to improve the economy by developing partnerships with the private sector for Dane County. His work with the business community through area Chambers of Commerce provides valuable experience that will lead to many new successful partnerships across the county,” said Parisi.

Phillips is a member of the Dane County Community Development Block Grant Commission and has helped promote area events such as the Ironman Race as a Board Member of the Wisconsin Sports Development Corporation. He has a strong background in designing economic development plans and was most recently in charge of economic development for the Stoughton Chamber of Commerce. Phillips has also served as the President of Downtown Madison, Inc. and is the former Chair of the City of Madison Economic Development Commission.

Phillips will be in charge of the Dane County’s collaborative efforts to strengthen economic and workforce development in the region. The County Executive chose to focus the County’s work in this area following his participation in developing the recently released ‘Advance Now’ Initiative through regional economic development group MadREP.

Contact: Carrie Springer, Office of the County Executive
springer@countyofdane.com  |  608.267.8823

Read the full press release.

Excerpted from InWisconsin.com

The Whitewater Community Development Authority presented Date Check Pro and Got Apps the first grants from their early stage seed capital fund. The CDA provide both with a $10,000 grant to assist the companies in their business development.

Date Check Pro improves grocery expiration date management
Many entrepreneurs launch their businesses after seeing a better way to deliver a service or improve a product. For Andrew Hoeft, founder of Date Check Pro, his moment came while working at his hometown grocer in La Crosse, Wis.

While working at Festival Foods, Hoeft managed date checks and rotated stock and noticed he spent significant time checking stock that wasn’t expired. He conceived the idea of building a system to notify grocers when stock would expire, and developed the Date Check Pro software application to allow stores to more efficiently track expiration dates.

“It’s really positive to see the Whitewater community’s investment in early stage companies. It really makes you proud to work in the city,” Hoeft said.

Entrepreneur network draws Got Apps to Whitewater
The vibrant entrepreneur community in Whitewater, Wis., is largely responsible for drawing Joe Neuman to locate his Got Apps, Inc. start-up business in the city.

The app development company specializes in creating apps for iPhone, iPad, Android and mobile devices. It consists of Neuman and one designer. He plans to add four to six employees by year-end.

Neuman formed Got Apps, Inc. in June, 2012 and moved from Chicago to Whitewater that winter. “As I saw the possibilities going on here, the tech companies that are growing here, things going on at the university, I made a three-day decision to move here,” Neuman said.”

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Excerpted from Janesville Gazette
By Gina Duwe

The manufacturing company is tucked behind downtown Evansville on Water Street, but its products are visible throughout the area.

Varco Pruden Buildings has designed and built the structures for places you drive by or occasionally visit, including Movies 16, the Rock Prairie Dairy and the Evansville Piggly Wiggly.

The company is one of the largest employers in Evansville and considers itself a world leader in the pre-engineered steel construction industry. Evansville is one of the company’s five U.S. offices. It is headquartered in Memphis, Tenn.

“The last couple years we’ve seen an uptick in business,” said Rod Huse, regional general manager.

The company employs about 60 in the office, where engineers design custom orders on computers. Designs are sent across the parking lot to the production plant, where about 160 workers build the pieces. Huse compared it to a giant erector set. When all the materials arrive at the building site, crews follow the drawing, which shows how the pieces connect together.

One thing that separates the Evansville facility from its competition is the longevity of its workers, Huse said. Many senior people have been with the company 30 to 40 years.

The plant is doing a lot of hiring, LaMothe said, but it still has many workers with a lot of experience.

“I’m here 15 years, and I’m the new guy,” he said.

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