John Oncken: Rain cancels Wisconsin Farm Technology Days

John F. Oncken  —  7/17/2008 4:21 pm

"Attention! Your attention please! The Wisconsin Farm Technology Days show has been closed. Please proceed to your cars and vacate the grounds as soon as possible. A severe thunderstorm with high winds is moving this way. Today's show has been closed!"

It was 1:14 p.m. on Wednesday, July 16 that the announcement was made and heard all across the 60 acres of tent city at Wisconsin's biggest farm show. The 15,000 to 20,000 visitors scattered all across the grounds on Country Aire Farm at Greenleaf in Brown County dropped what they were doing, turned as one and began to walk toward the parking lot.

It wasn't exactly a surprise. The glorious sunny skies of early morning had gradually given way to gray, then black clouds gathering higher and higher in the western sky.

Most of the thousands of visitors on the farm were farmers, had been farmers or worked closely with farmers, so they had been watching the weather. Farmers don't really need a TV meteorologist to predict the weather. They can feel when big-time storms are coming. They just know.

As the visitors formed long lines on the country road leading to the alfalfa field-parking lot, the hundreds of exhibitors began packing up. Everything that the wind could pick up and scatter "to high heaven," as one exhibitor said, was put in boxes, trailers and trucks.

Within moments, the first of the pickups and cars began leaving the parking lot.

No horns were honking. No vehicles cut in line. No one screamed or yelled.

The teenage boy with a bright orange "volunteer" T-shirt was directing traffic at the exit to "old highway 57." He was too young to have any training on traffic control, but he knew how to point and space the vehicles from the several lines forming to keep everything moving smoothly.

The darkened skies meant every vehicle had its lights on despite the early hour. The long line of lights slowly moving to the exit reminded me of the final scene in the movie "Field of Dreams," where the road was filled with cars fulfilling the prediction of "they will come."

Although many of those who so calmly filed out may have planned to return Thursday, it was not to be.

Wisconsin Farm Technology Days officials made the decision to cancel the final day of the event. The strong winds did not hit the farm show, but two inches of rain did. And that much rain turns the clay soils of Country Aire Farm to sticky goo.

John Schmidt of Brillion, a member of the volunteer "tent city" committee who was literally "fighting alligators barehanded" at 10 a.m. Thursday, explained the decision to cancel.

"Where could we park the cars?" he asks. "If only five to eight thousand people came this morning, and that would be a small number, we would need 80 to 100 buses to move them from parking lots in surrounding cities. It couldn't be done."

By 11 a.m. Thursday, light trucks and trailers were being allowed on the grounds to allow exhibitors to pack up their products. Bigger trucks would need to wait until the sun and wind dried the soil.

So, the state's biggest outdoor farm show ends in disappointment for all, including:

• The exhibitors who spent considerable money for space and bringing employee sand trucks and trailers full of big equipment and supplies for their exhibit -- in some cases thousands of miles -- to eastern Wisconsin. That means motels, transportation and overtime.
• The thousands of Wisconsinites who planned to attend the show on Thursday. And, those farmers like Pat and Tom O'Brien of Fitchburg who drove from home, arriving at about 10 a.m. Wednesday only to miss most of the afternoon.
• The nonprofit groups who expected three days of income from food sales only to end up with less income and food that wasn't eaten.
• The Gerrits family who hosted the event and had changed their farming programs and family life for several years in getting ready for the big event
• And of course the thousands of volunteers who worked so hard to put the event together only to have only half of the show to be held.

But all is not lost.

Farm people know a lot about weather and face its changeability every day, every hour. And this has happened before. In Eau Claire County in 1992, first-day rain prompted the cancellation of days two and three. In Rock County in 2001, day two was canceled but day three came about after much work. The worst of the worst happened in 1954 when the first Farm Progress Show didn't take place at all because of rain but did a year later.

The good news. No one got hit by lightning or by flying debris. No tents blew over. No one had to be pulled from the parking fields. The first day and a half were a success from the crowd and organization standpoints.

Even though the event was shortened, it doesn't take away from the efforts the thousands of volunteers in Brown County put into planning and putting on Wisconsin Farm Technology Days 2008. They did it! Chances are they will remember the short show even longer than if it had gone full term. Their efforts did not end in a normal fashion but under near-emergency conditions, they rose to the occasion!

The cancellation of the last half of Wisconsin Farm Technology Days will be criticized by a few, commended by most. Agriculture knows the weather can't be controlled, and farmers know that you adjust to what nature provides.

But the event was a success. Yes, visitors on Wednesday only got a half a day value for their $5 daily admission fee (wow). Exhibitors say they had a good day-and-a-half, and that's better than some days.

Thanks to everyone who was involved in Wisconsin Farm Technology Days 2008. Now it's on to Dodge County and the Crave Brothers Farm at Portland in 2009.

See you there.

John Oncken is owner of Oncken Communications, a Madison-based agricultural information and consulting company. He can be reached at 222-0624 or e-mail jfodairy@chorus.net

John F. Oncken  —  7/17/2008 4:21 pm