Happy 25th Wisconsin Ag Connection

Happy 25th Wisconsin Ag Connection!

By Pat Sternitzky, Founder

I'm so delighted to see that one of Wisconsin's main online sources for agricultural information is celebrating a major milestone this week. Wisconsin Ag Connection, which was launched in my home (in a spare bedroom) on June 1, 1999, is turning 25 years old on Saturday.

The concept of starting an Internet news publication was not uncommon in those days, but there weren't many people doing it yet in agriculture. And no body else in Wisconsin was providing farm news online. It was so exciting to publish our first stories and see the reaction from our readers.

No social media. No smart phones. Just people in rural areas getting their computers to login to 'dial up' service providers to check their email and see what they could find of interest. We were so blessed to be part of that era.

Tommy Thompson was serving as governor that summer, Amy Fischer of Loyal was just named Alice in Dairyland, and one of the top issues of the time was the implementation of use-value assessment for taxing farm land.

The Class III milk price was averaging just $11.93 per hundredweight, which led farmers throughout the Midwest to plan a milk strike the following year.

Launching and operating this business for over two decades was absolutely the most rewarding thing I have ever done. The people we met and worked with became close friends--everyone from our many employees through the years to the FFA students we covered during those state conventions.

And we had the support from advertisers ranging from farm equipment dealers to agronomy consultants and everyone in between. We sure cannot thank them enough!

My wife, Lisa, and I sold this news outlet, which includes the other 14 'State Ag Connections,' to Farms.com in late 2019. But we're so delighted to see that it continues to deliver the news of the day to Wisconsin farmers and others in this industry in a timely fashion.

Congratulations to the owners, sponsors, and of course the readers, of Wisconsin Ag Connection! I am excited to see what the next 25 years brings.

Pat Sternitzky

Founder, Chief Editors (1999-2019)