WI Governor Proclaims Fall 2026 Agtourism Season Kick-Off

You know, as a visitor to a farm, I can understand the pull.

I mean, I love and I love having my feet on the ground.

I love that fresh air, that lack of noise.

But why do these farms, why do they offer agricultural tourism experiences?

Well, because it is an economic revenue stream for the family farms, and we all hear that commodity prices are down, that fertilizer prices are up, that there are tariffs, that there are import, um, problems, that there are all kinds of things that affect agriculture.

And farmers have seen, uh, double-digit losses on the family farms for the last three to four years, and it, it, it's not getting any better.

And so, um, agricultural tourism is a way for a farm to use the beautiful resources that they already have and share that information with people that wanna know where their food comes from and how a farm operates and the history of the farm and the farm family story.

So that is why agricultural tourism is so important.

important.Are farm weddings still a thing?

Farm weddings are very, very popular because who wouldn't wanna have that natural setting for your pictures and your, and, um, your guests to enjoy, and that privacy out on acres of land and bringing that nostalgia.

Maybe the father or the grandfather was a farmer, or the uncle was a farmer, and the family has farming agricultural roots, but they're five generations removed.

So what a great way to celebrate a unity.

We say that agricultural tourism, Dave, is a marriage between agriculture and tourism in Wisconsin.

So what a great place to have your wedding other than on a agricultural tourism destination family farm.

Yes, and many of those venues, um, in addition to offering people the opportunity for weddings, they're used for other kinds of celebrations as well.

You know, family reunions, you know, 50th birthday party, uh, let's get all the kids there.

So people really are gravitating to something that puts them in closer touch with one another as well as closer and in touch with the land.

Uh, it's ...

I find c- find it's a, it's a yearning.

It's like, wow, you know, everything is so high-tech.

Now there are autonomous vehicles.

You don't even have to drive.

You know, everything is cement, and then they come to the farm, and I know that was the experience when we had hundreds of visitors on our farm on Bull Brook Keep.

I have them there for a lot of pasture walks, and the thing that always happened, I never saw it fail, is that people would go on a, on a pasture walk, and they'd be talking and asking, and after a while they would stop talking, and they would stop walking, and they would just take a deep breath and enjoy being there.

Um, it was connection, and it was relaxation in a place that, uh, well, just fed them, fed them, uh, and quieted them down.