Wagon ride a thing of the past for Wye tour?

QUEENSTOWN, Md. — It was a wagon-less crop tour.
The tour at the University of Maryland’s Wye Research and Education Center, which has become a traditional table-setter for the Maryland Commodity Classic, and at which Extension specialists discuss their recent production research, donned a new look last week.
The defining word “tour” may have to be put in quotation marks hereafter for it is now a somewhat formal presentation in a straw-bale amphitheater.
It is now university policy that wagons can no longer be used for crop or farm tours unless they are equipped with side railings and other safety equipment.
The policy emerged following an incident at another research facility in which someone fell off a wagon.
For last Thursday morning’s “tour”, straw bales and chairs were placed in a semi-circle before a  speakers’ platform.
In the field behind the platform was a crop rotation study launched in 1995 by Dr. Frank Coale.
The research discussions attracted as estimated 75 farmers and others involved in the ag industry. As it ended, they headed off to the Queen Anne’s County 4-H Park in Centreville for the 12th annual Maryland Commodity Classic.