By Cynthia Grau

PONTIAC – The Livingston County Farm Bureau hosted around 30 people from Western Australia Tuesday while the group was on their Route 66 tour.

Ross Withers is the CEO of Ag Implements, a John Deere dealer located in the Wheat Belt in Western Australia, and said he organized this excursion for business partners and clients for the purpose of seeing how things are done here, along with enjoying The Mother Road.

“We’ve found it interesting,” Withers said. “We went to our first farm visit this morning, which was great, and obviously these guys are getting a big insight into the difference between particularly large broad acre cropping farming that we do in Western Australia, which is primarily cereal grains.”

Jason Syred also farms in the Wheat Belt and said this trip was a mix of business and pleasure and the group was enjoying their time.

“So this is a little bit of business,” Syred said, “looking around and seeing how you guys do things, and a bit of pleasure as well, like doing a bit of Route 66, so it’s interesting to see. Seen a few sights as well as a bit of learning.”

They stopped at Edinger’s Filling Station for lunch before traveling to Chenoa for more farm visits and heading to Springfield Tuesday evening.

Cynthia Grau can be reached at [email protected].