News · last spring
Rain, robots, and 240 neighbors
It rained until 6:40 a.m. on field day, and then it didn’t. By nine, 240 people were on the teaching farm in Ashford County — growers checking the new planter, kids on the equipment row, and one border collie who attended without registering.
The morning’s biggest crowd wasn’t at the machinery. It was at a folding table where senior Grace Liu demonstrated a sensor that reads soil moisture through a phone. “My uncle farms 300 acres,” she told a circle of growers twice her age. “This is for him.” Three of them asked for her email before lunch.
Extension Director Tom Reyes called it the best turnout in a decade, then corrected himself: “Best conversations in a decade. Turnout is just a number.”
Lunch was pulled pork, served under the pavilion. The rain held off until the last trailer left.