The Best and Worst Farm Machinery Shows

This week I'm at the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Kentucky. It's near the top of my list as one of my favorite machinery shows. It has most major tractor and equipment brands represented and has both large items for row crop farmers and small equipment for us weekend or "hobby" farmers. It's all inside and under one roof. The National Farm Machinery Show has 800 exhibitors and draws about 250,000+ to the Kentucky Fair and Expo Center every year. Another major show is going on right now, the World Ag Expo in Tulare, California. It's billed as the largest outdoor agricultural exposition in the U.S., with 1200 exhibitors and close to 100,000 attendees every year. Tulare is located in the San Joaquin north of Bakersfield, in the heart of California's agricultural area. It features all types of equipment, including machines for fruit and vegetable harvests, and has something Louisville lacks, a "Ride and Drive" area where attendees can operate some of the equipment. A third major farm show in the Farm Progress Show, this year running August 29th-31st in Decatur, Illinois. Farm Progress rotates every other year between the Decatur location and a similar facility in Boone, Iowa. While primarily for professional farmers, the farm progress show has 600 exhibitors annually and the show is unique in the number of in-field equipment demonstrations it has. You can not only look at the equipment used to produce crops, you can also see it performing in the field. The fourth major show on the national machinery tour is the Sunbelt Ag Expo in Mountie Georgia, south of Macon. The Sunbelt Expo covers a 100 acre show ground while sitting adjacent to a 600 acre research farm. Moultrie features 1200 exhibitors with items for farmers, hobby farmers, and also specialty crop producers who raise cotton, peanuts, poultry and fish. It runs October 17th-19th 2023. The granddaddy of all farm shows is Agritechnica in Hanover Germany. It's held every other year and will be November 12th-18th in Hanover, Germany. The last show had 2800 exhibitors and 446,000 attendees, making it the number one equipment show in the world. If you're trying to find a good equipment show to go to, check out this list from Ag Direct, a subsidiary of Farm Credit Services that does equipment financing: https://www.agdirect.com/resources/learning-center/2023-farm-show-calendar. Watch out for shows with large attendance that are focused on the livestock industry. They generally don't feature a lot of machinery, for some reason, livestock and equipment don't seem to go together. Finally, look for the large equipment shows to have booths staffed by manufacturing personnel. While they may be abler to tell you the engineering background of products on their booth, they can generally only quote list price and direct you to a dealer if you're wanting to buy. Shows manned by dealers will sell you something off the booth and let you take it home. I've listed the major national farm machinery shows, if you have another show that is a regional favorite, please tell us about it in the comments below. LINKS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT... Ag Direct List of Best Machinery Shows: https://www.agdirect.com/resources/learning-center/2023-farm-show-calendar The Tractor Fun Store: https://asktractormike.com/products-for-sale/ Support the Tractor Mike Channel: https://www.patreon.com/TractorMike Visit the Tractor Mike website: http://asktractormike.com/ Copyright 2023 Tractor Mike LLC