Free bus shuttles available
BROOKLYN - The 2017 Green County Breakfast on the Farm is set for 6 to 10 a.m. Saturday at the Rollin' Green Dairy Farm, W425 Elmer Road, south of Brooklyn.
There will be field parking adjacent to the farm, but visitors and volunteers are encouraged to take advantage of free bus shuttles to avoid parking congestion. Buses for first-shift volunteers will leave from Walmart in Monroe at 4:45 and 5 a.m. Buses for visitors will begin at the locations listed below starting at 5:30 a.m.
• Monroe Walmart - 300 6th Ave. West
• New Glarus High School - 1701 2nd St.
• Albany Lions Club - 402 N. Cincinnati St.
The last shuttles will leave the farm at 11 a.m.
Sponsors of the free shuttle service include The Woodford State Bank, Sugar River Bank/Bank of New Glarus, First National Bank and Trust Company, Town Bank and Wisconsin Bank and Trust. The Bank of Brodhead is also sponsoring a bus for customers.
Breakfast on the Farm tickets can be purchased at the door and are $6 for adults; $4 for children 6 to 10 years of age; and children 5 years and under are free. The Green County Agricultural Chest and the Green County Dairy Queens act as official host and hostesses of the event. Proceeds from the breakfast benefit agricultural scholarships and grants for Green County youth.
Visit www.greencountycountyagchest.com for more information or "like" the Breakfast on the Farm on Facebook.
The Rollin' Green farm, owned by the McNeely family for three generations, will play host to Green County's 38th annual Breakfast on the Farm event.
Jeffrey McNeely, who operates the farm with his brother, parents and grandparents, said the family had hoped to host a Breakfast on the Farm event for years.
"We were looking at updating our facilities to make things more comfortable for our cows," McNeely said. "It's a real honor to be chosen to host it."
McNeely's grandparents bought the farm, then a 215-acre plot of land, in 1973 after farming in Illinois, he said.
Today, Rollin' Green Dairy Farm, located south of Brooklyn at W425 Elmer Road, currently includes 210 dairy cows and 1,600 acres of crop land.
The event will place a lot of pressure on the farm: McNeely said he has heard estimates that 5,000 guests will attend Breakfast on the Farm on Saturday.
"We want to showcase what three generations working on the farm looks like," McNeely said. "We want to show what we do on a daily basis."
McNeely said the family has been hard at work cleaning out and maintaining the farm's facilities to look their best but added that the Breakfast on the Farm event committee is responsible for event preparations.
That includes an army of volunteers to serve a breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage, cheese, homemade coffeecake, strawberry sundaes, and milk, coffee and orange juice.
In addition to the breakfast, the event, sponsored by the Green County Ag Chest will include live musical entertainment by the Soggy Prairie Boys, an antique tractor display and several educational presentations about farm life.
Attendees are encouraged to take free shuttle bus transportation to the event, particularly given rainy weather throughout recent weeks. The National Weather Service predicts a 50 percent chance of rain Saturday afternoon.
Still, barring a typhoon, McNeely said the event would carry on.
"We'll be going on rain or shine," McNeely said.