Mammoth message carved into a wheat field welcomes mega star Taylor Swift to Kansas City

Driving a Bobcat with a cutting tool, Rob Stouffer of Precision Mazes braved the heat and the dust to create a mammoth welcome message to Taylor Swift in a field of wheat stubble in Ray County, Missouri.

“We put in a crop art piece welcoming Taylor Swift to Kansas City,” Stouffer said. “I think, hopefully, in the most quintessential Midwestern way, we could do it, in a wheat field.”

Stouffer said he hopes Taylor Swift will see the design when she flies into Kansas City this week as she brings the Eras Tour to to GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on Friday and Saturday.

Precision Mazes of Lee’s Summit has been creating larger-than-life impressions and corn mazes since 2001. Stouffer, who has been using a GPS system that he follows manually while driving in the field, has created other crop art pieces including one of Kansas City Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid with a message reading “Thanks Coach,” after the team lost to Tampa Bay in the 2021 Super Bowl.

“We did a project a few years ago in Kansas for Trust the Earth, and that project was part of receiving a Clio,” Stouffer said, referring to the highly-coveted Clio award which recognizes creative excellence and design in advertising. “And so to be a part of that project that was that was obviously a lot of fun.”

“Our business is all about making impressions and leaving a mark,” Stouffer said. “And Taylor certainly leaves a great impression with her fans, and so we wanted to kind of tip our hat to her, welcome her to Kansas City.”

The design sits on about 25 acres in a 200-acre field. Stouffer said he cut about 6.3 acres of wheat stubble to create the mural, which features a likeness of Taylor Swift, two hearts, and a message reading ‘KC welcomes Taylor.’

About six weeks ago, Stouffer said, his crew at Precision Mazes started kicking around the idea of creating a Taylor Swift piece.

“We pulled the trigger, so we were committed to it about a month ago,” Stouffer said. The design staff began working up designs to be considered for the field.

“It really is a team approach,” he said. “We had seven different concepts of Taylor in the field and we put it out to friends and family.” About 50 people voted and the winning design, created by Eric Carlson and Rachel Stouffer, was carved into the wheat stubble on Monday.

Stouffer uses a GPS mounted on a Bobcat with a cutting tool mounted on the front to slice the stubble into the selected design. He relies on the GPS, but manually calculates his position in the field.

“I know exactly where I am ahead of time,” said Stouffer. “We take the artwork that’s been approved and we essentially assign it spatial characteristics and so all of it has a specific latitude, longitude,” he said. “So I see where I need to be and I see where I am and my job is to see that those two match.”

He also relies on text messages with aerial photographs sent to him in the field from his drone team allowing him to see the designs’ process come to life.

For the duration of the cutting, using a GPS marked location, the drone team flies a drone and monitors the designs’ progress from an iPad setup under a tent across the road from the field. The team records a time lapse video for the company’s social media and website.

Stouffer said his connection to Taylor Swift is just an appreciation for her as an entrepreneur and also an appreciation for the fact that she is a cultural phenomenon.

“I know she grew up on a small family farm in Pennsylvania,” said Stouffer, who grew up on a small farm in Marshall, Missouri.

“I know those roots growing up on a farm stay with you,” he said. “And so hopefully, she’s going to be honored, you know, hopefully, she’ll even see it as she flies in for the concert later on this week,” said Stouffer.

“I think it’s the quintessential way to welcome her to the Midwest. What we’ve done here today.”