While it may be cold and wintry on the outside, for those in the agricultural community, there was plenty of warmth spreading throughout the expo center at Harvest Ridge Thursday, Jan. 30.
The annual Ag-Pro Expo at Harvest Ridge saw a large contingent of agriculture-related visitors perusing plenty of the new farm equipment available on the market, and in addition, they were treated to a series of seminars covering all types of ag-related businesses.
Caleb Sullivan, corporate marketing manager with Ag-Pro, said the event is a critical one for anyone in the agricultural community.
Sullivan said they were approaching 1,000 visitors to the event, making it a big moment for everyone in the ag industry to connect and chat about important topics and advancements in the ag industry.
“From equipment dealers to ag financing and more, we are pleased to offer a lot of options for everyone,” Sullivan said.
Formerly known as John Deere Day, it was hosted by Shear Equipment until Ag-Pro took over in 2021. The inside of the expo center at Harvest Ridge was dotted with plenty of the familiar green and yellow of John Deere, but there were plenty of other company implements to make for a rainbow of colors inside the center.
“Moving the show to Harvest Ridge and getting everything under one climate-controlled roof was a big step for us,” Sullivan said. “It really allowed us to expand the show and make it even better.”
With 40 vendors, free breakfast and lunch, and plenty of learning opportunities, the day was a perfect chance for ag community members to connect.
Included in the slate of event presenters were seminar speakers from the Ohio State University Holmes County Extension Office such as educators Kate Shumaker, who spoke about family consumer science issues like food preservation, and Janessa Hill, who touched on pesticides and fertilization.
Extension educator Ella Lorentz, who manned the office’s table during the show, said this event serves as a key for people to make connections throughout the ag community.
She said she was promoting the upcoming 4-H year, which will kick off in a big way soon this spring.
“I talked to a couple farmers who said they were getting stir crazy because it’s been such a tough winter, so this was a perfect way to get out, mingle and learn. It’s all about education,” Lorentz said.
Sullivan said bringing the extension office onboard to help promote the event was important because they helped orchestrate the educational part of the event, in everything from insurance to safety, timber, livestock and more.
There were plenty of other opportunities to glean valuable information including seminars on tick-borne diseases, beef quality assurance, preserving farm legacies, grain bin safety, ATV safety, the evolution of AI-driven tech, farm insurance, ag tech innovations and more.
There also were opportunities for farmers to receive pesticide and fertilizer recertification.
With the event taking place in the heart of Holmes County, a community well known for its commitment to the agricultural community, Sullivan said it was the ideal place to set up the show.
“That definitely played a key role in bringing this show to Holmes County,” Sullivan said.
The show itself serves a vital role in developing the agricultural community, and Sullivan said it is a customer-focused show that is free to attend, right down to providing free breakfast and lunch meals.
He said each session was designed to provide farmers’ employees with worker’s compensation credit, offering even more value than simply experiencing the new equipment and technological advancements taking place over the past year.
He said Ohio has been experiencing a slow ag economy in the equipment sales arena, as is the case throughout the nation, but he said they remain positive that the economy will help turn that around and the agricultural world will remain vital.
New technologies being highlighted at the event included new sprayers, with a dedicated booth to the integrated solutions department that focused on a new see-and-spray where sprayers can actually locate weeds and spray them on contact.
That, along with plenty more technology advancements, provided a heartwarming break from the cold winter days for those invested in the agricultural community.
