Educating a Community on a Farming Tradition

Each year the Rock County community of Edgerton gathers together for the town festival. Named the Edgerton Tobacco Heritage Days, it has drawn controversy through the years in its promotion of tobacco. However, this year an area farm family and FFA members took it upon themselves to educate members of the community about the cash crop that helped build the town. Evidenced by the old tobacco warehouses in the center of town, raising tobacco has been a key crop for farmers in the area and it continues to be grown there today. Tim Krausse and his family, along with their friends, assembled 16 entries for Sunday’s parade through town, each one highlighting a step in growing this labor-intensive crop. From growing the seedlings and working the ground to harvesting by hand and stripping the plants, people along the parade route learned how the festival draws its name from this agriculture tradition that continues to promote families working together to plant and harvest their crop. The Krausse family has planted 17 acres of tobacco this year.