Independence, Wis. ? John Kerry worked to convince Midwestern family farmers Saturday that his New England heritage doesn’t keep him from understanding their needs.

“Look at the power of that land. You can just feel it. You see it,” the Democratic presidential candidate told about 100 farmers and others gathered in a barn at a family-owned dairy farm in western Wisconsin. “I know what you love. I know why you’re here. It’s the way that you feel about this.”

On the second day of a three-day bus campaign jaunt through rural Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa, Kerry toured the Dejno Acres dairy farm and promoted his agriculture policies as he sought to carve into President Bush’s support among rural voters.

Later Saturday, the Massachusetts senator — wearing rugged blue jeans and yellow hiking boots — stopped in Holmen, Wis., to trap shoot on his way to Dubuque, Iowa, where he planned to watch fireworks on the Mississippi River.

Throughout his hourlong town hall-like meeting in Independence, Kerry spoke of his proposals to require that food labels include a product’s country of origin and to expand programs that provide financial aid to farmers who practice conservation.

He also highlighted his plans to prohibit corporate meatpackers from owning livestock more than two weeks before slaughter and to increase production of renewable fuels from corn, soybeans and other agricultural sources.

Kerry defended his support of the 1990s Northeast Dairy Compact, a regional pricing program that propped up prices for Northeastern dairy farmers over objections of their Midwestern counterparts. Congress did not renew the Northeast Dairy Compact when it expired in September 2001.

However, Kerry co-sponsored a bill in 2001 that would have prevented the termination of the compact, as well as create similar price control compacts in other regions of the nation.

Presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., tosses a football with U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., and his son Johnny, 7, foreground, at the Dejno Acres dairy farm in Independence, Wis. The boy in the background is unidentified. Kerry is on a three-day bus tour through Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa.

“I know that Republicans are going to try very hard to say, ‘Oh, John Kerry voted for that dairy compact when he represented Massachusetts,”‘ Kerry said. “I plead guilty. I did vote for it, because I represented Massachusetts as a United States senator.”

Noting that he will be representing the entire country as president, Kerry said he wouldn’t support such a regional system if elected.

Kerry’s status as an outsider in the Midwest became clear at the farm when Mary Dejno, the matriarch of the family, introduced Kerry to the invited guests with a playful dig: “We can show off Wisconsin a little bit to this Eastern man.” She grinned as she said it.

Later, Kerry chided Dejno and sparked laughter from the crowd. “I’ve been out here a lot of these 20 years-plus, and you know, we actually have farms in Massachusetts.”