Agribusiness ‘Campus’ in Clark County Moving Forward

By Jane Fyksen, Crops Editor
Thursday, March 27, 2008 10:28 AM CDT

Clark County ranks No. 1 in Wisconsin in number of cows and dairy herds and No. 2 in milk production, according to the state ag department’s 2007 Wisconsin Agricultural Statistics book. Agriculture is the bread and butter of this county and surrounding ones in northcentral Wisconsin. That’s why visionaries in Clark County are pursuing an agribusiness complex that’d be approximately 200 acres to attract ag-based businesses, and maybe one day be a permanent home for Wisconsin’s Farm Technology Days.

The Clark County Board this month approved a land sale/purchase agreement that could eventually establish an agribusiness “campus” along Highway 29 south of Owen. The county will sell a parcel of land to the city of Owen for future development and use the proceeds to buy another from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation that’s adjacent to existing county-owned land tagged for the proposed agribusiness “campus.”

With this latest land deal, Clark County has designated 200 acres on the south side of Highway 29 near the Clark County Health Care Center, which at onetime, operated a farm that served as a site for Farm Technology Days. (More recently, Clark County hosted FTD at the Malm farm north of Loyal n not too far from the proposed agribusiness campus site.)

For several years, the Clark County Economic Development Corporation (CCEDC), a Greenwood-based private group promoting growth in this highly agricultural county, has been working on the concept of an agribusiness complex. The aim is to attract a diversity of ag-related businesses, particularly those in the high-tech realm, focused on green energy research and production. After all, Central Wisconsin has an expansive farmland base on which to grow the necessary alternative crops.

Sheila Nyberg, director of the CCEDC, is also hoping that Clark County’s proposed agribusiness campus could one day become the permanent home for Farm Technology Days, Wisconsin’s largest outdoor farm show. As most producers well know, FTD moves county-to-county every year. However, in recent years, a contingency of agribusiness/exhibitors have been expressing interest in a permanent home for the show, so that facilities might be constructed and fewer last-minute plans necessary.

The idea of this agribusiness complex did, in fact, emerge out of the county hosting the volunteer-driven farm show in 2005. A core group of Clark County movers and shakers have been meeting to at very least bring FTD back to the county again n if not permanently n then perhaps on a regular basis, notes Nyberg, reporting that FTD executive director Glenn Thompson came up to one of their meetings to hear what the committee was proposing.

The CCEDC-led group has also been in discussions with volunteers in nearby Marathon County, who’ve been working on another project to strengthen northcentral Wisconsin’s foothold in agriculture. That’s the Dairyland State Academy. Northcentral Technical College at Wausau, as reportedly recently in Agri-View, has established the first two-year degree program in dairy in the state, from which students could easily transition to a four-year program at UW-River Falls and eventually possibly Madison or Platteville, too. Northcentral Tech and the Dairyland State Academy leadership are also looking for a nearby site to construct a teaching dairy operation that’d be split between high-tech confinement and managed intensive grazing.

Nyberg mentions that state government has also been involved in discussions and the state ag department has been supportive.

Nyberg envisions an agribusiness campus with “multi-purposes.” She says agriculture is Clark County’s primary industry and local leaders are now taking that “to the next level” and “staking that claim” with this proposed project.

In the driver’s seat with CCEDC are, according to Nyberg: Gary Weirauch with Citizens State Bank of Loyal; Chuck Lindner, a Greenwood dairy farmer; Bill Herr, another producer form Greenwood; Matt Jorgenson, formerly Clark County’s dairy and livestock agent, now with Vita Plus at Loyal; Ken Dix, on the CCEDC board from Colby; and Tim Swiggum, the mayor of Owen.

In addition to the land deal, the Clark County Board also gave a green light to pursuing the agribusiness complex project. The next step, according to Nyberg, is to go after grant money allowing for an economic feasibility study of the project, including the need to put in streets and utilities to attract agribusinesses. The next step, she notes, is to hire a planner and form committees to take closer looks at various facets of the project.

Nyberg stresses that ag leaders in Clark County aren’t just talking about the usual industrial park but with an ag emphasis. Instead, the aim is to lure businesses that would enhance and build upon Clark County’s dairy-industry lead and establish northcentral Wisconsin as a hotbed for agriculture-driven sustainable energy. Local leaders think they have a good shot at attracting ventures with statewide n even national n prominence.

The “campus” location is ideal, they say, being in the center of the state and along a four-lane highway that runs between Green Bay and Chippewa Falls and feeds into Interstate 94 to Minnesota’s Twin Cities. Nyberg promises the agribusiness campus will have “no smokestacks,” but be “sustainable and green.” She says five companies have already expressed interest, which “shows we may absolutely be on the right track.”

With Clark County’s many cheese plants, “value-added” will also be a focus, Nyberg alludes.

Agri-View also visited with Greenwood dairy farmer Chuck Lindner, who serves on both the Land O’Lakes corporate board and the Wisconsin Federation of Cooperatives board. He says Clark County, which is very rural, needs something like this to “bring in jobs” and “keep our kids here.” Many farm kids go onto higher education; he wants them to come back and work.

Lindner says Clark County has “a lot of raw materials” with its volumes of milk and farmland base for research in bioenergy and on the “dairy side” and “seed side.” High-tech workers would be apt to find relocating to Clark County enticing if they’re “tired of the city.” He says the county has a lot to offer in terms of life-style (but not many jobs), because many people he knows are buying parcels to retire back home. The agribusiness campus would help the tax base and school districts in the county by bringing in families.

Ag tourism will perhaps also be part of this thrust.

Lindner hopes residents of Clark and surrounding counties don’t make any snap judgments about the proposal until it can be intensively studied further. “We will try very hard to make this a great thing. I think it’ll be something special,” says this producer/dairy leader.

As for the possibility that the proposed agribusiness campus as a permanent home for Farm Technology Days, FTD Executive Director Glenn Thompson definitely isn’t making promises. He confirms that he’s met with Clark County project leaders but that since then, the Farm Technology Days board decided at last year’s annual meeting that the show will continue to go county-to-county indefinitely. FTD has commitments to Brown County this year, Dodge County in 2009, Pierce County in 2010, and on April 9, the board will hear a presentation from another county.

While not wanting to close the door on “discussion” with Clark County on its initiative, Thompson stresses that one of the benefits of moving to a new county every year is that it runs on local volunteer help. A permanent site would be an investment in a labor force. What’s more, different locations draw “new clientele” every year, as studies reveal that most people will drive 100 miles to go to the show, though that’s changing somewhat, according to Thompson, as farms get bigger and have employees. The “decision-makers can get away greater distances,” he remarks.

Thompson does admit that the proposal process whereby counties make a pitch to host Farm Technology Days hasn’t seen the level of competition it once did. He admits he contacts “county X” to see if it’d be interested, and “if not, we move on,” even though every year, FTD is open to other counties making “application if they wish.”

Farm Technology Days has been held in Wisconsin since 1954. Thompson says a 2006 survey of “exhibitors and John Q. Public” held during the show in Sheboygan County showed that “overwhelmingly” people want Farm Tech Days to move year to year. Nevertheless, several exhibitors met earlier this year in Wisconsin Dells with show leadership to express their desire for a permanent home for the show.

“There’s still a cadre of exhibitors who want a permanent site,” says Thompson. The benefits would be hard-surface roads and permanent buildings n big pluses in the event of rain. Farm Technology Days is one of the few farm shows of its caliber in the nation that still doesn’t have a permanent location.

Moving county to county has its challenges, he notes. There must be UW-Extension office leadership to make it happen and the county board comes in with financial assistance. Plus, a host farm family must come forward and the land base must meet certain specifications in terms of drainage, convenient entry and enough space for tent city, field demos and parking.

“In yesteryear we’d get over a dozen farmers (in a county) making application” to host, says Thompson. “Nowadays we get 2 or 3. All you need is one good one though.”

While Thompson, as noted, says Farm Technology Days is open to further discussion on a permanent site, he stresses it would “take a lot of financial support” and the show is a nonprofit organization that “can’t buy land” or fund infrastructure like roads, utilities and water, and “labor force” remains a big issue. That’d be a “totally different ballgame,” he notes.

Whether or not Farm Technology Days ever puts down permanent roots in Clark County, local ag leaders in this dairy-stronghold are moving ahead with the agribusiness campus venture, seeing it as the mechanism to put northcentral Wisconsin on the very cutting edge of agriculture’s bioenergy revolution, not to mention value-added and ag tourism.

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