This past week was the 2013 Wisconsin State Fair. It had near record high attendance, with over million visitors over 11 days (eating a total of 387,000 cream puffs!). One of them was me (Kaitlin), and it was my first time at any state or county fair.  It was great, and I already can’t wait to go back next year.  The above photo is me toasting the Wisconsin Agricultural Ambassador with a choice locally produced beverage.

While my favorite part of the day was seeing a woman show her Holstein in a Bovine Beauty contest while wearing a camo-print ballgown, highlights also included the ag education stations and kids’ activity books focused on some of the crops that the Gratton lab works in — cranberries (Hannah), apples (Rachel), berries and grapes (Emma), and soybeans (Kaitlin).  McDonalds had even built a fake cranberry bog for kids to practice harvesting in!  It’s exciting to know that we’re investigating interesting and critical ecological questions in agroecosystems important to the state we live and work in.

 

 

 

This article was posted in Agroecosystems, Lab News.