Farm shows should be like shooting fish in a barrel for agriculture journalists. Stories and column ideas come to us for a change, rather than hunting them down one by one from across the region and the world.
But it is like drinking from a fire hose. Lots of water coming at you, hard to take a few sips.
This week we have a show of our own to cover, one of two that our company owns.
The show, Ag in Motion, is even taking place on the doorstep of the Western Producer’s headquarters in Saskatoon.
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Why, our Saskatoon editorial staff should be able to just saunter out to the edge of town and grab a few stories and get back to office for a leisurely lunch, right?
Not happening quite that way for me.
First, as the person voted most likely to write stories from a farm show at the WP, I also get some hosting duties. Second, I have a lot exhibitors and farmers that I know are attending the show and they are keen to have my attention. Third, I am watching the show in search of ways of making it better.
Add in a few new product launches, a politician or two and the need to put as much content as possible out via Twitter and producer.com and the actual number of stories I will capture is less than one might imagine.
To boot, at this farm show, I am at home at night, rather than in a hotel room where I could sit and write, file photos and videos from the day without having to drive my son to swimming, make supper or clean up a mess the dogs have made.
For all the WP staff, this is a tough week. We all have other duties when we are in Saskatoon. Most of us are involved with the building of the paper. This week we have cut one day off to complete the paper early because we are changing printing plants at the end of the month and have some experimenting to do.
We are also producing live CWB crop tour coverage and all the usual markets and news to write about.
Next week, I hope to have a few highlights from the farm show for you. But by then I will be in Phoenix, Arizona, attending an agriculture editors’ event. Maybe there, in my hotel room, I will start sorting out the ideas I got at my local fire hose, I mean farm show.
