HANOVER, Germany — The world’s largest farm show has seen an increased Canadian presence in recent years.
Agritechnica, which has run every second year since 1985, began to attract more North American attendees and equipment company exhibitors in 2007.
Mary-Jane Duncan, who farms south of Regina, said the German show is legendary among farmers, and this year she decided to attend with her boyfriend, Craig Eger, a producer from Coronach, Sask.
“It’s a bit overwhelming. You could fit a whole bunch of Regina’s (Canada’s Farm Progress) shows inside this one. And there is machinery that Craig and I stand in front of and try to figure out what it does,” she said.
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“There’s people from all over the world here.”
The couple were two of 2,000 Canadians at the show.
Reinhard Grandke, who heads the farmer’s organization that runs Agritechnica, said the show has attracted significant interest from around the world.
“The (equipment) producers come here to improve their markets in Europe, sure, but they also come here to build markets for their products in Russia, the Ukraine, Kazahkastan or South America. But also at home in North America or Australia,” he said.
“It is a world forum for agricultural technology.”
The show attracted 1,500 international exhibitors this year from 47 countries. Non-German exhibitors comprised half the participants, and 48 came from the United States. The Netherlands and China were the two largest foreign contingents
Greg Haukaas, who builds bale handling systems and other farm equipment as well as original equipment manufacturer parts for other farm equipment companies, was among 55 Canadian manufacturers.
The Saskatchewan machinery maker said the show is larger and busier than he expected.
“It lives up to the legend,” he said.
“If it is farm machinery, you will find it at this event. I haven’t even begun to see a small portion of what is here and I’ve already seen more than I could have imagined.”
Edger said he had planned to attend in 2011 but couldn’t make it at the last minute.
“There is a whole bunch of European tillage machinery here that wouldn’t be a fit in Western Canada, but there are dozens of (high clearance) sprayers that you could drop right onto my farm,” he said.
“Every prairie farmer should see this, at least once. But it might be a little addictive. There are too many great ideas here.”
Grandke said the show is one of the more important ways that the 24,000 farmer members of the German Farmers Society (DLG), get information about their industry.
The 130-year-old DLG is an independent, farmer run, non-profit organization with a mandate to provide extension agriculture information to producers.
Beyond organizing field days and trade shows, the 200 staff and members of more than 20 farmer and expert committees perform machinery testing, produce agronomic and economic analysis and act as a voice for producers’ issues.
Agritechnica attracts 400,000 people over its seven day run.
