Cedar County Ag Society launches fund-raising effort

HARTINGTON — The Cedar County Ag Society is launching a fundraising campaign. 

The campaign is designed to help the group both rebuild from the 2019 flooding and improve the fairgrounds. 

On March 13, 2019, northeast Nebraska was struck with one of the worst floods in over 50 years. The Cedar County Fairgrounds took on the most damage ever received in its 100-plus year history. For two days the grounds were under water damaging buildings, wiping out roads and fences, and destroying a 56-stall livestock building. 

The Cedar County Ag Society is working with the Hartington-Newcastle nd Laurel-Concord-Coleridge FFA chapters to launch a “Raising the Barn” fundraising campaign to help get the livestock barn rebuilt. 

Current plans call for a new livestock facility. and improved and enlarged show arena. The Ag Society began seeking bids earlier this year for construction of the new facility, which will connect several livestock buildings together with the show arena. 

The Ag Society is bringing the Peterson Farm Brothers to Hartington for a special show at Hartington- Newcastle school. 

A meal will also be served prior to the show. 

The show will begin with introductions by Dr. Ben and Dr. Erin Schroeder. The Hartington couple stars in the NatGeo Wild TV series, “Heartland Docs, DVM.” 

The Assaria, Kan., based Peterson Farm Brothers earned national fame through their YouTube channel where they perform entertaining parody music videos and produce an educational “Life of a Farmer” series. They also produce daily blogs and video content. 

The Peterson Farm Bros are made up of siblings Greg, 28; Nathan, 25; Kendal, 22; and honorary “bro” Laura, 18. 

They created and uploaded their first Peterson Farm Bros YouTube video in March 2012 ,with a video featuring the whole family called “Wheat Harvest on a Real Family Farm in Kansas.” 

In May 2012, Greg had an idea to make a parody music video with his brothers to help educate their city friends about farming. 

The video was filmed throughout the month of June and posted at the end of the month. It was entitled “I’m Farming and I Grow It,” and was a parody of the song “I’m Sexy and I Know It” 

The song was a viral hit on YouTube and received over five million views in over 200 countries in just two weeks. 

Since then, they have continued to make videos and so far have produced 15 parody music videos. 

Ticket sales for the show will begin March 1 at various ticket venues around Cedar County. 

Serving of the meal will begin at 5 p.m., the show will begin at 6:30 p.m. 

Cedar County Ag Society President Greg Heine said community support is crucial to make this project a success. 

“The community support has been outstanding so far,” he said. “A lot of people have come forward to help out. It’s just been unbelieveable. 

Heine said funds are also being raised by selling memorial bricks. 

More information can be found at http://cedarcountyfair.net/flood-relief.