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Hello everyone, welcome to our summer season of In Wisconsin.
I'm Patty Lowe.
I'm here at Ulbrich Gardens in Madison
bringing you some of our favorite stories about the
people in places in our state.
This week, crops, livestock and corn mazes find out
how some state farmers are using the family farm to
enter the tourism business.
Meet a young couple taking a big chance on a tough new life
and set sail upon waves of grass for an ambitious art project.
All that plus a trip to a state natural area that
evolves through periodic fires in Wisconsin.
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Major funding for In Wisconsin is provided by the people of
a lion's energy who bring safe, reliable and environmentally
friendly energy to keep homes, neighborhoods and life in
Wisconsin running smoothly, a lion's energy, offering
energy saving ideas on the web.
And by the University of Wisconsin Comprehensive
Cancer Center providing cancer research, education
and treatment, UW Comprehensive Cancer Center,
Comprehensive as designated by the National Cancer
Institute, information available on the web.
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Our next story is about a class of UW students who had with some
would call a feudal dream.
They wanted to become dairy farmers.
Wisconsin sure can use them.
Not only are we losing many of our generations' old
dairy farms, but fewer in fewer farms are starting up.
Tonight we begin a two-part series where we catch up
with some of those students three years after they set
out to achieve their dreams.
Three years ago the students from the University of
Wisconsin's School for Beginning Dairy Farmers were
checking out Jonathan Primley's Farm near Blanchardville
in Lafayette County.
They were there on a field trip.
Primley was one of the school's first graduates.
I went through the school like you guys did and like
I said graduated in March and internship through July
by September 15th I was on this place with my own cows.
Primley can testify that you don't have to grow up on a dairy
farm to become a dairy farmer.
One day I said forget it.
I said equip my job.
No more of the business career.
I just looked in the local paper
and took a farm hand job.
One of the students, John Feller's, can relate to that.
His story isn't that different.
My degree is in computer information system that
was a network administrator for an accounting firm.
We hadn't even talked about getting married, anything like
that. We were out to dinner and we just started talking
about the future and what some of our goals and future
interests and things were.
And that's when he told me about the farm and the house
and the hound dog on the porch.
I was a little surprised.
The most important thing is the land.
Another student, Patie Laskowski, grew up on a farm
near Hillsboro.
This is what it looked like before
the barn burned in 1991.
After that her parents raised only corn and alfalfa.
It wasn't, seemed like it was a way of life that you could even
have and make a living at it.
So I thought I'm going to go to school and do something else.
But after teaching biology at a community college and
working in an administrative job at the UW, Laskowski
and her husband, Bill Moran, wound up visiting a farm.
And they walked around on their soft green pasture and sat
down under a tree and talked that afternoon.
And I suddenly realized this is what I want to
do. This is what I want to do.
As the course wrapped up in March of 2002, the students'
dreams were nothing more than PowerPoint presentations.
With this, we'd like to support a family and actually
make a living doing it.
Will Laskowski be able to bring her family's farm near Hillsboro
back to life?
We'll tell you on next week's in Wisconsin.
This week, can you find happiness on a farm after
you've seen networked computers?
For two years that are so that I'll be working for somebody.
This is what I plan on building up.
And when I start my farm, this is what I plan on having.
One month after he made his final presentation to the class,
John Feller is mastering skill number one for Daring, getting
up very early in the morning.
Yes, good morning.
This is the parlor.
This is where we milk.
We get down in the pit there and then we'll see the
cows are back there right now.
He's working as an intern on Bert Perris'
farm near Bellville.
No, I'd actually milked at Bert's back in January.
He let me come out and milked.
He let you milk because that kind of like Tom
Sawyer or letting his friends help paint the fans.
Yeah, she was sick yesterday, so it's good
to see her up like this.
He's also tending sick calves.
Oh, she's just about got a half gone.
I love it.
She was dead yesterday.
She's the miracle calf.
Fast forward two years to the spring of 2004.
John Feller's and his wife Courtney are working on
Gerald Berg's farm near Cascade in Shaboygan County.
After finishing my internships through the school for
beginning dairy farmers, we took a job on a dairy
firm in Ohio and we worked there for around six months.
But John Feller says it didn't work out as expected.
I think when they initially talked to us, they painted a
picture that we thought was going to be a certain way
and then when we got there started working, that's not
the way that ended up being.
Understand that many grazers approach daring not just
as a way of feeding cattle.
Fresh grass.
Love it.
It's a way of life.
They were a grazing farm, but
they did other things that were pretty labor intensive.
Grazing means keeping cows in the field except when
they're being milked.
The cows feed themselves.
The Ohio farm operators supplemented the grass
with mixed additives.
I think the first experience we had was kind of rough
on us.
That kind of sourd me a little bit, I guess.
We were in Michigan for a while, close to Courtney's
parents. And we went to the grazing caverns up in
Stevens Point, Wisconsin.
We met Gerald, who we work for now.
Gerald Berg is one of the farmers who started
Wisconsin's revival of grazing cattle on grass
pastures about 15 years ago.
Somebody that's interested in grazing was an important part
of my search for somebody.
At this point, the Fellers had been in cascade for five
weeks. They're working for salarate and the use of a house.
But also in the future, possibly work out an equity share
so that through working, we not only have a salary, but
we also would earn cattle.
At the end of 2004, the Fellers are still in
cascade, tending cows in the pasture, doing the milking.
We have a really wonderful treat today.
John and Courtney Fellers are with us.
They also come back to Madison to lecture to a new crop
of beginning dairy farmers.
I did not come from a farm, I grew up in the city.
And I worked on a dairy farm between high school
and when I started college.
I just thought that was the best job I ever had.
It informs the class things are still going well in
cascade. They likely won't be able to buy the farm.
The owner wants to keep the land and his family.
But they're negotiating to get a share of the crop
of calves, which they'll be able to relocate to land.
Somewhere else in Wisconsin.
Our aspirations were sure in five years to be on our own
farm. From the time we started, we're obviously behind that.
But I think in the long run, we'll be in a better position
for having made some of the choices that we have.
Both financially but also with our situation in general.
You're making enough money to wait for it to be worthwhile
to you.
That's the...
Yeah. Some days it's questionable for
the most part, yeah.
But the real news?
Courtney is expecting a baby.
The part of our purpose anyway and wanting to farm was the
opportunity to raise a family on a farm because of the
lifestyle that it provides.
So it's really actually exciting for us.
We're on a farm.
We're farming.
We're going to introduce a child to that lifestyle.
And it's really nice because we're all there
all the time.
We like that.
We'll bring you the second part of that series next week.
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You just met a couple who are trying to make a go of
it from their dairy farm business.
Some Wisconsin farmers would tell that couple
they should be ready for some tough times financially.
So tough, in fact, some Wisconsin farmers are
looking for non-traditional ways to grow the income
from their family farm.
Springtime planting.
A common scene on the Wisconsin landscape.
But this farmer is growing a crop of a different sort.
Meet Alan Trinon, fifth generation
farmer and agricultural entrepreneur of sorts.
Good luck in the corn maze.
Don't get too lost.
Have a good time.
There are a lot of ways to have a good time on the Trinon family
farm near Lodai.
You could launch a gourd into the pond.
There you go.
Catch a hay ride to the pumpkin patch.
We can make a beautiful face right here, Jasmine,
when we carve it.
Or there's the big attraction, the corn maze.
This season will be our fourth year for the corn
maze. The maze will be a pirate ship this year.
We added the corn maze to our operation of our pumpkin patch.
With the corn maze, it's my wife and I.
Two people can run it.
On a slow to medium day, you take their money and
get them apt on to get lost.
That's the number one question.
What if we get lost?
When I tell them we harvest middle of
November, we'll find you that.
The Trinons are part of an emerging trend in
agriculture, ag tourism.
Family farms across the state are opening their barn
doors to the public.
And plenty of folks are willing
to pay for the chance to walk through a field of corn.
We've known an area like this where we're not too far from
Madison. Land values have been going up 15-20% a year.
You can't grow corn and beans and make a living at
that if you're paying that kind of price for land.
So farmers are saying our land is valuable.
We need to do something that's
more valuable and capture some more money off of it.
In Sock County, tourism generates about $700
million worth of economic activity every year.
We're the number three tourism county in the state.
So we look at $700 million in tourism versus $120 million
from the agricultural economy.
That's why we've really been trying to push for more of
those tourist dollars to be funneled into the farm economy.
It's a dollar for three tries.
A dollar for three.
For Alan and Angie Trinon capturing some of those tourism
dollars is vital to their ability to stay on the farm.
On this farm it's a 200 acre farm with a little more
than 100 acres till it.
You cannot support a family on
the 100 acres of traditional crops, corn and soybeans.
If it wasn't for the corn bays in the pumpkin patch I would be
working off the farm and Angie would likely have to work more.
Because we live here on this farm.
It's nice that it grows but we don't want
to turn it into Disneyland.
And also we promote this as a real farm.
So we're not going to pave everything and get scoop
up the manure every hour or two.
Finding a balance between opening their farm to the
public and retaining their privacy can be a challenge
for ag tourism operators.
A lot of farmers, they farm because they like being
their own boss and working by themselves and they don't
want people coming out and telling them what to do.
And when you're doing ag tourism you're answering
to your customers.
Well the horses names are miking max, miking max are
both Belgian work horses.
There are zoning issues, there are traffic issues,
signs. A lot of things are regulated when you start
an operation like this.
Bathroom facilities, you name it.
It isn't just easy money.
You can't just cut some pads through your corn field and
put out a sign and expect everything is going to be great.
But there are some great opportunities too.
Great opportunities also exist in what could be considered
the quieter side of ag tourism.
John and Dorothy Prisky operate the fountain prairie
in and farm in Fall River.
We're in addition to welcoming guests to their restored
1899 Queen Anne home.
They raise a herd of Scottish Highland cattle.
We were attracted to them originally because since
they have all that hair they also don't need any
housing in the winter.
We also found out that their meat is just excellent.
And besides being the cutest cows
you've ever seen, that's another drawing point for the B&B.
A lot of people like to come and see them.
Raising cattle and running a bed and breakfast may
seem an odd combination.
But for the Priskeys it was the realization of a life goal.
I worked in downtown Madison for about 18 years.
And one of our goals was to be
home on the farm together.
It always sounded like John was having so much fun here.
I either had to put a stop to that or come home and join him.
I was actually going to be just outside in the farmer
part of the in and farm.
But since we've been open we've had so many
interesting people come that I'm it's like a magnet.
Everybody that comes has a story.
They may come to hear our story but in the meantime
we're hearing their story.
The Priskeys story centers around restoration.
Since buying the property in 1986
they restored not only the three story 17 room house.
But also the land.
Taking land that was for many years used
for row crops and turning it back to wetlands and prairie.
You know we are restores and we try to share what we do.
We don't just do it and then put
up a fence and keep people out.
Everything we've done we share it and educate and
at the same time we learn.
A lot of the guests want to get out and see the animals and
have their pictures taken with the animals and help do chores.
In fact we've had some guests that have beat me up.
Yeah that's what I would just skip is say we've had one
family from Northern Illinois.
The wife is an early riser and she and John did the
chores on a Saturday morning.
Next morning she got up early and showed the other
guests how to do the chores.
That was a lot of fun.
Doing chores, picking produce, tromping through corn
fields. Often the farmers themselves are surprised by
the appeal of ag tourism.
In my generation everyone had a cousin on a farm,
a family member who were cousin or uncle grandpa on a
farm and was exposed to it.
Today kids don't and so running through your corn
field is a novel idea.
People are a little more removed from agriculture than they were
a few generations ago but some of them still remember going to
grandpa's farm or uncle's farm.
And they either want to relive that experience for themselves
or share it with their children and sometimes I think they bring
their children under the guise of saying well we want to show
this to the kids but actually they're coming for themselves.
I still consider it agriculture.
It's agriculture and tourism.
I would consider it educational too.
It's a chance for the trinants to teach people from the
city what it's like to be out on a farm and how corn
grows and how pigs grow.
It really takes a special personality and a
special type of person to do this type of work.
So where are y'all from?
Chicago. The trinants tell us this
year's corn maze opens August 5th and will feature the theme
the cow jumping over the moon.
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For our next story we reach into Wisconsin Public
Television's video vault.
Back in the 1980s artist Nag Wicoff was inspired by
the rolling prairie fields in southern Wisconsin.
This week our Wisconsin retro segment takes us back
to 1982 where we look at the spectacular results
of Wicoff's inspiration.
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A lot bigger than I thought it was going to be.
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I can't wait.
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I think it's absolutely beautiful.
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A lot of people ask me why.
Why did I do this?
There are basically two reasons why I did this.
The first thing you're looking at is the land.
The land is very unique here.
This is the most beautiful land in this country.
It's gorgeous, it's rolling, it's changing every day,
it's different.
It's like a big green ocean.
Well, I'm farm-ing, I don't know.
I drive down fields every day and live.
To me it was just a nice view.
For instance, when I picked this site I talked to Richard
Lasseninger, who is the farmer on whose land the
sculpture exists or will exist.
I wanted to convince him to give me permission.
I was at corn plant in time and he was coming with this idea,
setting these sails up there.
I said, "Well, I'll just show him what it's all it's
going to be."
I said, "I think about it a little bit."
Well, the land looks a lot like an ocean.
Big rolling fields and you see the winds
swirling through the wheat and the barley and the corn.
It just has that whole sense of an ocean.
What we're doing is drawing attention to that unique
feature of the land by creating a sculpture that is based
on the design of a ship.
It sounds like a pretty good idea.
He seemed like a pretty nice guy to try something.
He said it was the ideal spot, so I said,
"Okay, let's go then."
I think we had 37 feet of that and counting all the poles.
It's about a solid rock, you have to get
down about three feet.
In Liverpool I was born.
Ring 'em down.
London is beyond from home.
Ring 'em down.
In Liverpool girls I do admire.
Ring 'em down.
They said, "Jerry can nullify our home."
Ring 'em down.
It's a man capable and we
almost go.
Ring 'em down.
It's a man capable and we almost go.
Ring 'em down.
It's a man capable and we almost go.
Ring 'em down.
It's a man capable and we almost go.
Ring 'em down.
It's a man capable and we almost go.
Ring 'em down.
And the second reason I did this, well just
look at each other.
It's because of you people.
I couldn't have done it without you.
My idea was there was an idea, but it was you people and this
land that made it possible.
So it was you that I owe the greatest thank you to.
They don't identify this sculpture is so much as being
a nudge-wike-off sculpture.
It's our sculpture.
I mean I'm the catalyst
and I'm the one who designed it.
But I think when you consider the number of hours
and the sacrifices that some of these people put in, for
instance Michael Wolleen, who is a schoolteacher, has
in the last couple weeks spent close to 100 hours
working on this project.
One of my seamstresses is Diane, who you know has
a farm and she works as a seamstress during the day hours
to sew.
I mean she comes here right after work and sews
for another five or six hours.
That's her tremendous sacrifice.
A lot of people were willing to work, but they you know
they can't afford babysitters or something like this.
And I certainly can't afford to hire babysitters for
everybody so they can be here.
So bring your kids.
Well first they started playing
around the school, but then they very quickly thought
this was really intriguing and got involved.
And some of them have turned
about really fantastic.
A couple of the young girls are without a doubt the
faster people we have when it comes to painting fabric.
They like it.
It's fun.
They're doing something.
They're accomplishing something.
It's not watching TV and just sitting back.
It's becoming involved.
And I think that's what young people need.
One reason, I mean I need to have so
much volunteerism is I can't afford to pay people.
And I can't afford to purchase all the materials.
Well I thought it'd be quite spectacular looking
up there in the field.
Like having some sailing ships out on land up there.
We're going to make the steel parts on this sail.
And it was about the top part up here.
The ring that goes around the pole here
and the ring down below.
They approached me and they looked kind of interesting to
me and so we found here they helped out wherever we couldn't.
There's going to be something to see.
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I think the sculpture says it all for itself.
I ask you to look at it with a bit
of humor.
It's here for a couple months.
Enjoy it.
It's for you.
It's for all of us.
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That's our program this week.
We leave you now with a trip through Solen Springs,
Sharptail Barons, a state natural area in Douglas
County. For In Wisconsin, I'm Patty Lo.
See you next week.
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