This document printed from the University
of Illinois Extension Stu's News at http://www.extension.uiuc.edu/macon/
Farm Progress Show III
August 28, 2009
For some people in Decatur it is a curiosity they will watch on the news. For others it has disrupted their daily routine and they are glad it is only three days long. But for some of us, it is Nirvana.
The third edition of the Farm Progress Show at Decatur's Progress City opens Tuesday morning with ceremonies at 8 a.m. and attendees streaming through the gates until one of several things happen: 1) they see all they came to see; 2) they see everything there is to see; 3) mother says, come, dear, it is time to drive back to Iowa; or 4) their feet hurt and there are no more golf carts to rent.
You have heard all of the references that the Farm Progress Show is the "World's Fair of Agriculture," but this year it takes on a heightened meaning. This will be the first visit to Decatur by BASF, a German-based enterprise that is the world's largest chemical company. BASF has 100,000 employees worldwide and sales of nearly $80 billion. It is not sending a lone salesman to Decatur to push cans of weed killer to a bunch of farmers. It is making a substantial investment in labor and materials to attract a small share of the money that is spent on farm inputs.
According to the 2007 USDA Census of Agriculture, farmers in Macon and adjacent counties spent over $1.150 billion to plant and harvest their corn and soybean crops. Granted, that covered all production expenses, but a share of that was spent to control weeds, insects, and diseases, which come in containers marked BASF, Monsanto, Dow, and Bayer. Extrapolate that to the Cornbelt, and you'll quickly grasp the economic magnitude of what is happening at the Farm Progress Show.
After the event was here in 2007, I ventured an unofficial estimate that the 80 acre show site held a potential $1 billion worth of farm equipment. There were several responses, all in the order of "you are probably close," to "I would not disagree with that." Two years later, higher prices for steel, and the farm equipment makers have held their own. The recession may have softened some prices, but probably very few, and for chemical, seed, and other input vendors, their prices have declined very little.
Will farmers from Carroll, IA, Newcastle, IN, and Rochelle, IL all be in the buying mode? That is the question of the day, and it will be answered early on Tuesday when there is a lot of tire kicking underway. Thousands of them will head to Dave Brix' cornfield on the north side of Progress City to watch the newest combines perform under real field conditions. That doesn't happen anywhere else but the Farm Progress Show, so we only have 48 hours to see what is on the minds of those who make purchase decisions for their farm.
If you want to be a church mouse and just hide and listen for a while to see what farmers think about new things, venture to the northern side of the exhibit field to the bio-mass grass plots where there will be demonstrations of different crops for advanced ethanol production, along with the opportunity for farmers to ask questions: How is it planted?, How do you harvest it?, How do you store it?, and Can I make any money from it? Switchgrass and Miscanthus have been billed as the next crops to be refined into bio-fuels, and since they have to be planted, cultivated and harvested, someone has to do it. And count on the Farm Progress Show to make some headway on that challenge.
As that state of Nirvana arrives Tuesday, look for farmers from around the world who will be there entranced at the future of agriculture.
