Farm City Day scheduled for Aug. 13

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Tom and Carol Kamm family

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The public has the chance to experience a farmer’s life at the annual Farm City Day at 1710 190th St. in New Richmond on Saturday, Aug. 13.

According to John Van Dyk, owner of the West Croix Holsteins farm in New Richmond, the Farm City Day started more than 30 years ago.

“I’ve been a tour guide every year,” said Van Dyk. “We started out with about 1,200 (attendees) and now we get about 3,000 – a lot of them in buses from the Cities.”

From 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. that day, attendees can see tent displays, tour the dairy farms, take hay rides and enjoy free ice cream, milk and a dairy lunch.

This year the event is shared between two neighboring farms: the West Croix Holsteins and the Nova Holsteins – owned by the Kamm family.

Van Dyk said that they decided to co-host the event to give visitors a glimpse of the total farm experience.

The West Croix Holsteins farm has been owned and operated by John and Eileen and Christopher and Rikki Van Dyk since 2000. Prior to that, John and Eileen had a farm outside of Boardman since 1976.

Their current farm has 220 owned acres and 200 rented acres. They have 60 cows and 60 heifers in their West Croix herd. They also grow corn, alfalfa and soybeans for use in their dairy operation and on the market.

The Nova Holsteins farm began with Tom and Carol Kamm buying a 300-acre farm to house 60 milk cows and their heifers. A fire in 2000 had destroyed the barn, along with the 100 dairy cows. In June of that year, they bought another farm four miles north and rebuilt the herd with 19 milking cows. Today they have 150 cows and 250 heifers, in addition to farming 500 acres of corn and 300 acres of alfalfa and grasses.

Wagons will be available to take visitors between the farms. The event is free to the public.

Tags: new richmond, rural scene, area news, agriculture, celebrations