Please join us at our 2025 Spike-to-Fork Field Day Aug 27 and enjoy Kernza Pancakes for Lunch!

What's a spike-to-fork field day?

Glad you asked! A "spike" is the infloresence of a cereal head - the flower, really, that shoots up above the plant and makes seed.

For our upcoming Field Day at the research farm in East Troy on August 27 from 9am to 1pm, we'll be touring the trial crops where you'll get to see ripening Kernza spikes, along with buckwheat groats, hemp flowers, and millet pannicles. It will be a wonderful morning, and we'll wrap it up with a cleaning and milling demonstration and LUNCH with buckwheat and Kernza pancakes so you can experience the alternative grains flour chain from start to finish.

"As usual, this will be a bunch of nerds watching crops grow and kicking tires," promises Dr. Nicole Tautges, MFAI Research Director, who will lead the day. "I think this field day will really show the breadth of MFAI’s staff talents and the breadth of our work, and how much of the food system we are able to touch through our research, policy, and education programs. Then we'll get up some Kernza pancakes for lunch with locally sourced butter and maple syrup!" 

MFAI Research Director Dr. Nicole Tautges in the five-year-old Kernza field at North Farm, where the field day will be held.

This event will feature a final tour of the North Farm, where MFAI has conducted agricultural trials for 15 years. The Institute is moving operations to its Pickeral Lake Road Farm in 2026. 

Guests will begin the day with coffee and a welcome at the equipment shed, followed by a guided walk through MFAI's trial fields.  Participants will rotate through four stations with MFAI staff.

Dr. Nicole Tautges, MFAI Research Director, will meet participants in front of MFAI's five-year-old Kernza stand and discuss how a move to more perennial crops can help protect Wisconsin’s natural landscapes and resources. 

Dr. Esther S. Durairaj, MFAI Education Director, will present MFAI's alternative crops research, including hemp, buckwheat, and pearl millet. Participants will learn about warm-season rotation extension opportunities and have the opportunity to ask Dr. Durairaj about lower-latitude crops that could be adapted for use in the Midwest. 

Chuck Anderas, MFAI Policy Director, will present MFAI's policy program, including work with the WI Grazing Coalition and how farmers can access more support for conservation management practices through policy advocacy.

Christine Johnson, MFAI Farmer Education Coordinator, will host a lively roundtable discussion on education offerings and how participants can get involved in MFAI’s farmer networks like Wisconsin Women in Conservation (WiWiC) and the Milwaukee Urban Agriculture Network (MUAN). 

“For a lot of people who don't farm, August feels like the end of summer, but for farmers it's the midway point- a time to pause to reflect on the decisions that we've made leading up to this point and to make plans for the fall, specifically how we'll incorporate soil and nutrient management into the second half of the season,  Says Christine Johnson,  “This field day will be an opportunity for growers to learn, together, strategies for field management, such as dealing with pests and weed control.”

This event is free, but pre-registration is required HERE. Attendees are encouraged to bring forks, mugs, boots, and a “can-learn” attitude.

Hosted by the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute (MFAI) with support from the Resilience Coordinated Agricultural Project (Resilience CAP).

The Resilience Coordinated Agricultural Project (Resilience CAP) is a collaborative research, education, extension, and outreach effort aimed at improving the resilience of agricultural systems by: 1) discovering adaptive production and socioeconomic strategies that help shield producers from impacts of climate change and market shocks; and 2) encouraging adoption of perennials, diversification, and integration of livestock with forage and crop production for greater agricultural resilience from field to farm scales. Learn more at https://ag-resilience.org.