Photo by Brooke Wohlrabe Kevin Anderson, an employee of NuWay-K&H Cooperative, talks about how drone technology is implemented in farming at the annual From the Ground Up event at the Moeller family farm in Welcome.

WELCOME, Minn. – Project 1590’s annual From the Ground Up event at the Moeller family farm on Aug. 4 centered on innovations in agriculture.

The event partners with farm families in Martin County to reach out to community members and leaders who might be unfamiliar with various aspects of farming.

“The first part is, we want to acknowledge and appreciate the agriculture within our county. The second part is to bring in the ag community and have them interact with the non-ag community,” said Wanda Patsche, a local farmer and committee member of From the Ground Up.

The audience of about 200 included business and community leaders, educators and regional and state leaders.

“Our intent was to have a diverse group, which we did. We want to have farmers and people from the ag sector have conversations and answer questions. It’s all about relationship building and making connections,” Patsche said.

The focus of this year’s event was to showcase a local farm and learn about how technology is making a difference in crop and animal production.

This event consisted of a social hour, followed by an opportunity to visit six vendors presenting and explaining cutting-edge technology in agriculture.

• C & B Operations — tractors and nutrient applicators;

• Minnesota Soybean — soybean products;

• NuWay-K&H Cooperative — drone technology;

• Easy Automation — automating animal feed, grain and fertilizer;

• Tonne Century Farms — growing hops;

• Lost Sanity Brewing — which used Tonne Century hops top provide drinks at the event;

• Barn Tools– barn monitoring.

Patsche said planning this year’s event was a bit of a struggle after missing the last two years due to the pandemic. The 12-member committee started planning in March, and she said the committee members work well together, with each specializing in a particular area, whether it’s decorating, finding sponsorships or lining up other details.

As for the sponsorships, Patsche said the money they’re given obviously pays for the expenses, but anything that’s left over is split between Project 1590 and the local FFA chapters.

A meal was also served from Lola’s Catering in New Ulm and dessert was sweet corn ice cream with a variety of toppings. The meal was actually held in a cleared patch of Angel and Matt Moeller’s cornfield.

“We didn’t decide to hold it there until the night before. We were going to have it in the machine shed, but once we got there we decided, this is where we want to have it,” Patsche explained.

During the event, Steve Hawkins, another committee member, said they’re open to ideas for next year’s event. Every event has been at a different place in the county. The last one was held at the fairgrounds but the committee knew this year they wanted to hold it on a farm again.

“All of us were quite satisfied with how it went. It wasn’t perfect, but nothing ever is. We’ll find ways to improve it, and we’re already looking forward to the next one,” Patsche said.