2013 Final Wisconsin Farm Technology Days Report

Barron County

Field Demonstration Committee

Committee OverviewDescribe your committee’s responsibilities (big picture).

The Field Demonstration Committee is responsible for a major part of the Wisconsin Farm Technology Days Show. Our main focus is to showcase demonstrations relative to current agricultural equipment in use and demonstrate their use in actual field application practices. We are also responsible for the “Ride and Drive” area of the show and coordinate the use of Trams to shuttle people to-and-from Tent City, Field Demonstrations, and Farm Tours.

Committee ResponsibilitiesList your Committee’s duties and the primary tasks.Field Demonstration Committee Chairperson(s): - general organization, volunteer recruitment, budgeting, plans agenda for monthly meetings, works with local equipment dealers and farmers to secure necessary equipment. Works closely with the UW-Extension specialist and host farmer. During the show that person also works with sub-committee chairs to solve issues and obtain necessary resources.

Volunteer Chairperson: Recruit volunteers, work with FTD Volunteer chair on committee needs, assigns volunteers to sub committees.

Tram Chairperson : Volunteer recruitment, coordination with parking, tours and field demos, secures additional trams/buses, and trains volunteers (tractor drivers/spotters). Prior to show, assign volunteers to field demos, trams and determines routes.

Tram Driver: Safely and courteously transport people from parking lots to tent city and back,from tent city to field demos and on-farm tours. (must be 18 years or older and have a valid driver’s license.

Tram Spotter: Aid driver is safely and courteously transporting people as previously mentioned.Aid people in getting on the Tram, answer informational questions (location of events, etc., and alerting driver when it is safe to proceed. (must be 16 years of age).

Field Demo Chairperson (UW-Extension Representative): works on field demo schedule with committee (fields used, types of demos practical, time table); liaison with manufacturers, sends requests for field demo application to manufacturers based on demonstrations planned; trains field demo volunteers on how to run safe demos; conducts an informational meeting with manufacturers at show site –several weeks before the show, helps coach committee to accomplish goals. During the show: fills in where needed; conducts daily meetings with demonstrators and volunteers; works with committee to accommodate weather delays; assigns volunteers to get lunches (volunteers pay for their own lunch) for field demo volunteers.

Field Demo Sub-Committee Leaders: Usually from the planning committee – works with other sub committee chairs on best sequence of equipment at the start of the show; assigns jobs to volunteers, stops any exhibitor that isn’t safely operating machinery; aids announcer with announcement cards, observes for any safety issues or demo issues.

Assistant leader: aids in controlling flow of equipment during the show.Crowd control volunteers: (5-6) hold rope line (approx. 500 ft. long); advance the line when

safe, alert spectators when they are in an un-safe locations.

Ride & Drive Sub-Committee: 1-2 people. Identify requests for Ride & Drive area. Determine space needs for vendors, layout area and work with grounds committee to get a fence erected around the perimeter. Sub-divide the Ride & Drive area for individual vendors with “Caution Tape.”

Maintenance/Fuel Cub-Committee: Aid in getting help with flat tires on trams and equipment, fuel needs – record fuel levels on all incoming demo equipment (refill at end of show to same level when started). Record total amount of fuel used, top-of tram tractors as needed during the show.

Field Operation/Demonstration Planning Committee: 8-12 people to discuss and make decisions on types of demos, help in obtaining resources, recruit volunteers, take leadership role on sub-committee levels. Committee should include a Tram Chairperson, Volunteer chairperson, Field Demo chairperson, UW-Ext. representative, farm representative, farmer’s agronomist, farm’s custom harvester, local equipment vendor reps, and local farmers.

Committee StructureDescribe how your committee was structured along with a description of the responsibilities of the committee members.

Co-Chairs: Matt Schofield, Agronomist at Lakeland Cooperative, Ridgeland-Chetek Rice Lake.

Keith Kolpack, Ag Instructor at Barron High SchoolFarmer: Alex Olson & Mary Olson – Alex also served as liaison to the Executive

CommitteeUW-Extension Rep: Scott Sanford, UW-Madison

Also, you need 8-10 members representing equipment dealers, farmers, custom operators, seed dealers, nutritionists, agronomists.

Barron County Field Demonstration Committee Members:Enid Jackson, Secretary at LakeLand CooperativeNate Kringle, recent grad from UW-RF, FarmerLynn Peterson, Retired FarmerAndy Bensend, Custom Harvester, FarmerMike Kroeger, Sales and Mechanics, Tractor Central – John DeereLarry Moen, FarmerMitch Zimmer, Baribeau Implement, Case IHAudrey Gausman, Agronomist/Crop SpecialistCraig Hamernik, FarmerKen Scheps, Farmer

Budget

We had a little difficulty putting a budget together initially. We went off of previous shows. We did have a number of donations that helped tremendously in regards to seed and fertilizer. Our initial budget was as follows:

Fuel $ 6,000.00Lodging and Foods 2.500.00Miscellaneous (Trams) 3.000.00Meeting Expenses 500.00Postage 0Seed 20,700.00Fertilizer 57,000.00Signs 1,000.00Soil Samples 0Supplies 1,000.00TOTAL $91,700.00

Field Demonstration Events:Breezy Hill Dairy is a 485 Holstein cow operation. It is operated on 700 acres of owned

and rented land of which 200 acres is irrigated. 185 acres were used for field demonstrations. Most field demonstrations were able to have field passes of approximately 600 feet. The weather cooperated for most of the show except on Tuesday when a good morning shower limited most field events. Wednesday and Thursday were excellent show days for our field events. The show mainly revolved around forage harvesting. We did incorporate some new ideas this year by having bale processing, field application sprayers, and a ride and drive area using tractors with GPS technology.

Mowing and Conditioning (Andy Bensend)Andy was our lead person as he owns and operates a custom harvesting operation. He

also set up the merging schedule to fit the chopping schedule. Our show had two pull-type mowers and 7 self-propelled mowers representing 6 companies.

Mergers and Choppers (Nate Kringle and Larry Moen)We had one wheel-type rake and 3 mergers representing 3 companies; one pull-type

forage harvester and 3 self-propelled harvesters representing 4 companies; and 1 self-unloading wagon, 3 self-unloading trailers, and 3 truck mounted forage boxes representing 2 companies. Each company was able to have one pass and then we had a walk-around-time for spectators to go up close to the machinery and inspect it plus a sample of the forage harvested that was placed in a labeled tub. After 20 minutes or so, spectators were moved back behind the rope line, and the demonstration began once again. This seemed to work fine and the spectators liked getting close to the machinery during the walk-around time.

Raking and Baling (Craig Hamernik and Ken Scheps)Wet weather on Tuesday delayed the baling demonstration until Wednesday and

Thursday. 3 round balers representing 2 companies; and 4 big-square balers were on hand.

Bale Processing (Craig Hamernik and Ken Scheps)Round and Big Square bales were used in this demonstration. Hay that was just baled

was taken over to the bale processing demonstration site, run through the processors, and then rebaled. We had 3 bale processors representing 2 companies. The chairs of this event eventually moved the processors to the area where baling was taking place. The processors then ground up several bales, which were later chopped into wagons for moving to the farm.

Field Application Sprayers (Mike Kroeger and Mitch Zimmer)This was a new feature the FTD show. We had 3 sprayers representing 3 companies.

The demonstration involved operating the sprayer over a field that was supposed to have been chopped Tuesday morning. However, with the rain, the demonstration was delayed until Wednesday afternoon. The staging area for this demonstration was on top of a hill which allowed the spectators to see the sprayers as they made their way over a set course. Spectators could see the automatic shut-off valves work as they went over a simulated and marked grass waterway. The demonstration showed the technology available today utilizing modern spray applicators. Moderately successful for the first time. The representative companies are hoping this demonstration may continue in the future.

Tractors with GPS – Ride ‘N Drive (Mike Kroeger and Mitch Zimmer)This was also a new area for us this year as we wanted to have spectators the chance to

ride with an operator to see how GPS works in a tractor. We had 3 tractors representing 3 companies that offered this demonstration. It was well received.

Trams (Keith Kolpack, Enid Jackson, and Lynn Peterson)We used the 12 trams provided by the State FTD. They were moved from Outgamie

County to Barron Co. by way of Fox Valley Technical College Semi-Driving Program. That was a

big lift. We borrowed another13 trams locally. Tractors were secured from Case IH (16) and John Deere – Tractor Central (8).

The basic schedule were to use trams in the morning moving people from parking to tent city. At about 9:30 a.m. we took 8 to use for farm tours, and another 9 for field demonstrations. The remainder were left to move people in the parking lot. We also used 6 school buses that stayed in the parking lot all day. When things got too busy in the field and parking wasn’t as busy, we moved several of the trams and buses to help moving people to field demonstrations. We could move a lot of people faster using buses along with trams.

At night, trams were parked right next to our Field Headquarters. This was also the area where field demonstration machinery was parked and where Grounds Headquarters had their trailer and checked out UTV’s. Tractors were refueled at the end of each day. Ideally, tractors were parked so the refueling truck could access them easily. Keys were left in all tractors. As a result, we did not have a problem with misplaced ignition keys. 24 hour security was in place on the grounds including our area.

Coordinating field demo tours can be an issue. There are some demonstrations that are more popular. We found that initially, we would bring a tram load to each demo site, drop them off with the knowledge that another tram would be along to take them to other demo sites. All trams on field demo tours then started a clockwise rotation delivering and picking people up. If we had empty trams waiting to pick people up at tent city, we sent them on to the field tours to accommodate folks that wanted to move to another site or back to tent city. The trick is to have your drivers understand that concept. That worked fairly well and limited walkers between sites. Radio communication is key and so is the eye of the supervisor. We had 2 people monitoring trams. That helped. Sub-committee chairs were in communication using radios at the end of the shift to make sure everyone got picked up and delivered back to tent city. We stopped taking people to field demo sites a half-hour before the end of the shift.

TimelineInclude a timeline of major activities of your committee and a brief description of each activity listed in the Timeline.

December, 2010 Co-Chairs attended State FTD meeting at Plover, WIJan. thru Sept. 2011 Met/communicated with UW-Extension Ag Agent with Co-Chairs

to determine possible committee candidates.Sept. 2011 Formulated final list of committee members.Dec. 2, 2011 State FTD meeting at Plover, WIDec. 8, 2011 First Field Demo Committee Mtg. Selected Secretary1-19-2012 Second Field Demo committee Mtg. Discussed Field Demo

options, budget.2-13-12 All-committee chair meeting at Rice Lake. Committee mtg. prior3-13-2013 Committee Meeting. Selected Sub-chairs for field demo events.

8-28-2012 Committee meeting at the host farm. Starting to firm up actual Field demonstrations and field locations.

11-14-2012 Committee Meeting. Started soliciting volunteers.1-19-2013 Committee Meeting.

2-13-2013 Committee Meeting.

2-21-2013 All-Committee Meeting at Cameron.

3-13-2013 Committee Meeting.3-23-2013 Sent updated list of volunteers to local UW-Extension.4-4-2013 Sent initial letter to volunteers for upcoming safety training.4-20-2013 1st day of Safety Training for UTV operators and tractor

drivers/spotters5-6-2013 Letter send to tram drivers/spotters regarding scheduling5-18-2013 2nd day of Safety Training for UTV operators and tractor drivers

and spotters.

5-23-2013 Secretary and Co-Chairs scheduled volunteers.5-29-2013 Media Day. Had a display board showing farm fields and

schedule of field demo events for FTD 2013.6-19-2013 Vendor meeting and chicken BBQ at 5:00 p.m. Committee Mtg

Following. Final arrangements and schedules.Letter sent out to all volunteers for upcoming meeting on the farm.

June 24-July 3rd. Obtain 13 trams from local organizations/businesses.

7-6-2013 Sat. 9:00 am. Tractor Safety and all-volunteer meeting on the farm. Summarized responsibilities and schedules.

7-7-2013 Sun. 5:00 p.m. 2nd Tractor Safety and all-volunteer meeting.

7-8-2013 Monday. 10:00 a.m. Machinery Vendor Mtg. on the farm. Machinery Tune-up.Kick-off Banquet at 7:00 p.m.Farm Tours at 7:00 p.m. for Tour Speakers (State FFA Officers)

ShowTimeTuesday, 7-9-2013

7:00 a.m. Tram Drivers begin reporting. Sent 2 to the Exhibitor Lot to aid in giving rides to exhibitors. Well received.

7:45 a.m. All Tram drivers and spotters report. Sign out radios. Fill out lunch orders.

Brief meeting regarding today’s schedule and routes to drive.8:00 a.m. Meeting for all machinery vendors, UW-Ext, and volunteers

helping with field demos regarding today’s schedule.5:30 p.m. All Committee Chair Meeting.

Wednesday, 7-10-2013.7:00 a.m. Tram Drivers begin reporting. Sent 2 to the Exhibitor Lot to

aid in giving rides to exhibitors.

7:45 a.m. All Tram drivers and spotters report. Sign out radios. Brief meeting regarding today’s schedule and routes to drive.

8:00 a.m. Meeting for all machinery vendors, UW-Ext, and volunteers helping with field demos regarding today’s schedule.

5:30 p.m. All-Committee chair Meeting.

Thursday, 7-11-20137:00 a.m. Tram Drivers begin reporting. Sent 2 to the Exhibitor Lot to

aid in giving rides to exhibitors. 7:45 a.m. All Tram drivers and spotters report. Sign out radios.

Brief meeting regarding today’s schedule and routes to drive.8:00 a.m. Meeting for all machinery vendors, UW-Ext, and volunteers

helping with field demos regarding today’s schedule.

Other Notes:Pre-Show (month prior to show dates)

Host a dinner for machinery vendors (June 19th for Barron). Meet with the Parking Committee and County Sheriff to go over logistics –

especially traffic patterns and machinery equipment on the road. Met with the host farmer to get harvest schedules lined up.

Week Before the Show: Committee members need to understand they need to be available to get

everything organized – lots of last minute items to take care of. Make sure tents are set up where needed. Get signs set up where needed. Get companies in the Ride & Drive area set up (fencing) Obtain extra trams. Parking should have taken care of harvesting parking lots. Need to provide area for machinery vendors to tune-up equipment. Check and record fuel levels of equipment as it comes in. Equipment should

leave with the same amount of fuel as when they arrived.

Saturday through Monday prior to the Show: Volunteer orientation sessions on-the-farm. Have tram drivers practice

driving tractors. We also took them on a tour of where they would be driving. Trams were set up by the Field Headquarters Tent area and refueled each day.

Harvest field demo headland areas. Possibly leave some for last minute equipment tune-up. We had a neighboring farmer help us with this. Schedule a meeting for machinery vendors on Monday to go over logistics

of the show.Show Time!!:

6:00 – 6:45 a.m. Obtain ice, water, and radios for use.

Tram drivers will start showing up by 7 a.m. We had tractor drivers select a tractor, take the key(keys were left in the tractors at all times), come to the registration table and record their name, tractor number, spotter, and radio assigned.Have a couple take a tram and help exhibitors get from their lot to tent city. We heard a lot of nice comments from exhibitors on this.

Sign in tram drivers and assign radios to the spotters as they arrive. Have them fill out food orders if needed. Special thanks to the food committee for putting lunches into brown paper bags and stapling order on the outside of bag. This made it easy to put them into a cooler and deliver if needed to the volunteers in the fields or on trams.

Last minute safety training for tractor drivers if needed. Meeting with all tram drivers/spotters at 7:45 a.m. Sent them on their way

to the parking lots by 8:00 a.m. By the time they had a load of folks to the admissions gate, it was 8:30 or so. Admissions got them wristbanded and set to enter tent city by 8:45 a.m. Gates opened at 9:00 a.m.

8:00 a.m. Meeting with field demo volunteers and equipment vendors. Wedid not have coffee and donuts, but that would have been nice. No electricity where we were.

Field demo workers and equipment vendors ordered food if desired. FoodSlips were turned in to Tent #5. Food orders were available by noon, bagged individually with their order stapled on the outside. Worked slick.

Post Show: Thursday afternoon: dismantle field headquarters area. Pick up all trash.

Return all tractors, borrowed trams, UTV’s, etc. Arrange for harvest of fields not harvested or processed during the show. Arrange for tillage of tent city and any field demo areas, or parking areas that

need it. Write thank-you notes to all who helped with loaned equipment, time, etc.

See additional notes, letters, forms located in the attached addendum.

Equipment Needed

ATV/UTV/Golf Carts – Must have a valid Driver’s license and be 18 years or older. We used UTV’s to aid in traveling to fields and getting volunteers to their places of work.

We asked for 12 UTV’s and used 9:1 per Co-Chair (2)1 per Field Demo Sub-Chairs (5)1 per Field Operations chair – UW-Extension (1)1 per Tram Assistant (1)

John Deere and Kubota provided UTV’s. We had to register with the Grounds Headquarters, hand in our safety training card, and driver’s license. We received all back at the end of the day. Worked well.

Trams:12 trams are available through the State FTD. We got 13 more trams and also used 6 school

buses from our local school district (Barron).Tractors were provided by our local implement dealers: 16 small tractors from Case IH and 8

From Tractor Central.

Radio Needs:1 per tram (24)1 per field demo sub-chair (6)1 per Field Demo Chair (2)1 per Field Operations Chair, UW-Extension (1)1 per Tram Assistants (2)

Total: 35

Other Equipment Needs:20’ X 40’ Tent at Field Demo Headquarters20’ X 40’ Tent at Tour Pick-up area. (Farm Tours and Field Tours)20’ X 20’ Tent at Field Application Sprayer Demo site.Auctioneer Trucks/Speaker systems (5)6 tables (only used 3)40 chairs (used all 40)2-3 ice chests for water1 medium sized cattle tank for water bottles with iceUsed 12 bags of ice and went through 25 cases of waterPorta-restroom (1)Display Stand for charts for meetings (2). A 4’ X 8’ display board in hindsight may have worked

better.Hay tedder and tractorTractor used to pull forage wagons from field to silos.Site maps for tram drivers – instructions included.One large site map of tent city/parking lot/field demo area. Laminated.One large site map of Field Demo area and schedules. Laminated.Handout on safety tips for tractor drivers and spotters. Lunch Order Forms: we used 100.Sharpies/markers/note paper.Forms for Tractor Drivers/Spotters/Radios assigned. Radios had to be picked up and returned at

the end of each day. $960/radio. We never lost one.

VolunteersExplain how your committee recruited volunteers, the time for recruiting and when they were needed (before, during, and after the show). Include methods of communication with volunteers to keep them updated. How many volunteers worked in your area and how many were assigned to each job or task. Volunteer Needs: (preference was to get people to work the whole day – somewhat successful).

Each tram needs a tractor driver and spotter.

24 trams x 2 per tram = 48 volunteers per shift. Have 4-6 substitute/relief drivers and spotters/shift. Our shifts ran from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and from

12:00 noon 5:30 p.m. If folks only volunteer for a shift, you would need 96 volunteers/day.We were fortunate to have many work a whole day, but it’s a long day! Extradrivers and spotters would help this long schedule.

Look for experienced tractor drivers.

Field Demos:6-9 people including 1 leader/announcer; 4-6 for crowd control, 1 machinery starter,

1 auction truck driver (possibly the owner of the truck). 4 events were held twice daily from 10 a.m. – noon; and from 1-3 p.m.4 events x 6-9 people needed = 24-36 volunteers needed/shift.Most volunteers in this area worked all day.

Other notes: Each committee member helped to solicit volunteers for their area. Each volunteer needs to fill out a “Volunteer form” that is kept on file at the

UW-Extension office (tracking and insurance purposes). We used a spread sheet to keep track of volunteers and color coordinated them.

We had a total of 209 volunteers. See the attached sheets for further info. We started soliciting volunteers a year in advance of the show. Some volunteers

were obtained off of the master list from our local UW-Extension and sharedwith other committees.

All tractor drivers were given safety training at 4 possible dates. A safety specialistperformed training at 2 sessions. The Tram Chairman provided safety trainingat the other sessions and a few on the day of their shift. Safety training materials were provided by the UW-Extension and the local Ag Instructor. See the attached notes.

All committee members attended safety training and received a green card used to obtain the use of a UTV during the show. Each volunteer received a free T-shirt. Switching shifts at noon is a pickle. Try to get folks to volunteer all day. Radios worked wonderfully for communication. All tractors were numbered. It made for easy switching of routes, etc.

Additional thoughts for a successful Farm Technology Days show Previous reports from other county shows were very helpful. Those reports saved a lot of time and thought. Use them. Be organized. It’s easy to lose track of something because there is so much information. We had an excellent secretary that was super with the excel program for helping to track volunteers. Take a look at the sheets in the attachment. They can be useful and reorganized to fit your needs.

Having been a part of this experience was great. We got to meet people that some of us normally would not have had the opportunity to work with. That was the best part. Remember to have fun. Feel free to contact anyone of us if you need any more information. Good luck with your show. We would like to come and take part in it.

Respectfully submitted,

Enid Jackson, Secretary 715-205-6767Matt Schofield, Co-Chair 715-764-2816Keith Kolpack, Co-Chair 715-418-0563