Janesville, Wisconsin is home to many historic places, including MacFarlane Pheasants, Inc. Tom Wilmer, from Central Coast Public Radio has been the travel host of the National Public Radio digital media radio show, Journeys of Discovery, at KRML in Carmel, California for many years. He travelled to Janesville, Wisconsin for the first time in September and visited a few of our landmarks. While visiting MacFarlane Pheasants, Tom spent time with the owner, Bill MacFarlane.
Tom interviewed Bill about MacFarlane Pheasants’ farm and business. It was fun to hear Bill talk about his business and we’ll be sharing some of the discussion. Please listen to the entire interview and learn about the history of MacFarlane Pheasants and other interesting facts about the business.
Bill shared some history of MacFarlane Pheasants during his interview with Tom Wilmer. He told about how his Uncle Ken started a pheasant business in Janesville in 1929. Bill’s Dad, Don MacFarlane, bought some land next to Ken and joined Ken in the pheasant business in the 1930s. Ken died in a hunting accident and Don took over both businesses and continued building the MacFarlane brand. Don passed away in 1985. Bill MacFarlane has continued to build and expand the business to its current status as the largest pheasant farm in North America.
One of the topics, Bill discussed with Tom was how important the Food Product Division of MacFarlane Pheasants, Inc is to the business. He told Tom that the biggest growth he expects to see in the business is in the food division. Most any restaurant in this area that sells pheasant will be serving MacFarlane’s pheasant. Prince Charles has been served MacFarlane’s pheasant and it has also been served at inaugural dinners in the United States!
We encourage you to listen to the entire interview to learn many more facts about MacFarlane Pheasants and the other historic businesses in the Janesville area. You might want to stop in at MacFarlane Pheasants’ Retail Store to pick up some tasty pheasant and other wild game meats, after a day visiting historic Janesville, Wisconsin. You can also purchase our delicious pheasant online at www.pheasantfordinner.com
