ag days

Today I went to ag days. I try to go every year - this year I was even going to take my own vehicle and brave the parking disaster that thousands of BIG trucks in one parking lot cause myself. However, I was saved by my father in law, who offered to come in later to pick Dale up - I still had to be home in time for skating. What fun. We actually got a great spot - between two four wheel drives that didn't turn tight enough - gotta love a little car!

Anyway, Ag Days is a huge trade fair. I go to network with people that I see once a year, learn about new chemistries, seed varieties and products for the farm, try out new gadgets, see demos of new software, find out about new policies - it is a very productive day. Dale goes to learn about new machinery (and sometimes, he buys some), he goes to find retrofits and upgrades for existing machinery and also tries to talk to the marketing guys that are available. We don't actually do much together, but we do manage to cover pretty much the whole show by splitting our interests.

We went on the Wednesday this year. There are many strategies to picking a day to go to Ag Days- generally speaking, the weather is horrible (either 40 below or a snowstorm), so that determines what day we go. Not this year, it was lovely. Apparently Tuesday was the busy day this year - it seemed quiet in there, but I'm sure the attendance figures will be 8000 or so.

The demographics of the show are quite interesting - probably 40 percent of the crowd is 55+, and 15% will be under 18. Some will be farming, but I'm often having to fight through the ones looking for pens and freebies to get to the person I want to talk to about business. So, for something different today, Dale & I took in the Keystone Agricultural Producers Young Farmers Luncheon. That should have cut down the average age, but there were an awful lot of older folks who just walked in for the free food.

Anyway, Dale and I have separate business to do at the show, so after lunch he went to go shopping and I went to go talk to the president of the Keystone Agricultural Producers. I wanted to tell him that we had appreciated being part of the pilot program for ALUS (Alternate Land Use Services) as he had been a big influence on getting it implemented. And hey, getting paid to do the right thing environmentally is a nice incentive.

Well, I did just that. He asked me to speak up, so the whole table could hear my comments, as ALUS was one of the things they were discussing. And then I started getting questions from around the table. From the Deputy Agriculture Minister, the Agriculture Minister herself, the Assistant Deputy ministers. Oh well, they're the ones holding the purse strings. So, I answered them, told them that I hoped they could continue and expand the program to other RM's and left (almost gracefully). Can't say I didn't put my two cents in.

I might try to go to Winnipeg next week - the young farmers are having another meeting, and I'd actually like to go. I'd have to squeeze it in between skating and Brownies, of course, but maybe if I leave at 4 in the morning and get back by 6 - it's a K day- we'll have to see. I did sign Dale & I up for the Farm Forum in March - not sure what Rex Murphy can tell me about farming, but it might be fun to hear him speak anyway!