By paNOW

Farm Progress Show displays state of the art innovations

Jun 19, 2013 | 1:02 PM

It’s a show featuring new products and technology not seen anywhere else, a show of eye-popping machinery, and a show that will draw in thousands over the next three days in Regina.

Wednesday is the opening day of Canada’s Farm Progress Show.

“In one word it’s massive. It’s the largest agriculture trade show in the country,” said show manager Rob O’Connor.

The event helps promote agricultural equipment and technology, where some of the newest innovations and ideas are on display for people from around the world. O’Connor said they expect 45,000 to come through the gate. That includes 700 delegates from about 50 different countries.

Some specifically wait to launch a new device at this show because of the heavy traffic.

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“This is a very challenging show to get in. It’s the country’s largest show so we feel that this was the ideal launching platform for the company, its brand, its equipment,” said Graeme Lempriere, President and CEO of Clean Seed Capital Group.

“We understand as the biggest show in the country there’s a lot of delegations from around the world,” he explained.

Lempriere and his team waited for this show to roll out new technology in relation to no-till seeding. That includes a drill that essentially aims to help farmers place exactly the right amount and blend of fertilizer and seed at every square foot of farmers’ fields without overlap and misapplication.

“The need for precision farming is becoming more and more evident. So we’re trying to apply infinite control and delivery of these expensive products as detailed as we possibly can for the farmer so he can save money,” Lempriere said.

“The way we do things are so far advanced from other countries that those countries are coming to source our technology to take back to make their own farming practices better,” O’Connor added.

Countries as far away as Nigeria, United Arab Emirates, and South Africa have interested parties here.

Some are here from Germany promoting a show very similar to this one. The difference is Agritechnica is the world’s largest of its kind. Representatives from that show have been coming to Regina since 2007.

“We’re here in Canada because we are hoping that a lot of the farmers will actually choose to visit our exhibition in Germany,” said Agritechnica’s Malene Conlong.

And a lot of them have.

“We’ve definitely seen a growing trend since we actually started coming here and built relationships. We’ve seen a growth of people coming from Canada,” Conlong said. “At the last show we had 1,700 people and I believe the majority of these were actually from Saskatchewan itself.”

The two shows are similar, yet there are differences among them. At the Farm Progress Show, you can find products immediately whereas Agritechnica is more forward-looking.

“What you can find at Agritechnica is next generation stuff. You can find future concepts, you can find solutions of what’s going to be available in the future,” she said. “At Agritechnica you are able to make an investment decision maybe over the next two to five years.”

The German-based show, which happens mid-November in Hanover, attracts over 400,000 people from around the world. Many major agricultural developments make their debut at this show.

“The next generation of precision farming, what’s going to be available in the future in terms of electronic, sensory-controlled equipment,” Conlong outlined.

These guests and exhibitors are only a small sampling of what Canada’s Farm Progress Show includes. It runs Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily at Evraz Place.

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