Farmers across Western Canada meet for three weeks every January.
Well, only a few farmers meet for all three weeks. Most who attend the events limit it to their own regional meetings and shows.
However, our reporters and editors cover most of the sessions and events.
First up is a week of meetings in Saskatoon. It used to be called Crop Week, and for most producers, it still is. However, it is really Crop Production Week, CropSphere and Crop Production Show. The first two are sets of meetings for most of the commodity groups as well as the Sask-atchewan Seed Growers Association. The latter is an indoor farm equipment and technology show.
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Next is Manitoba Ag Days in Brandon with a similar plan but all under one set of roofs.
Third is FarmTech in Edmonton, which, like the others, includes commodity group meetings and speakers and seminars about everything from marketing to advanced agronomy.
This year, I plan to attend all three shows, something I have not managed for three years.
Other shows and events are also held over the winter months that feature agronomy workshops and trade shows, including the Red River Valley’s St. Jean Farm Days, a great, but much smaller event.
Growers who attend the big three can hear about where and how their commodity check-off dollars are being spent and their associations’ plans for next season.
Research groups make presentations about new agronomy and technology, and all the groups discuss commodity pricing, trade and transportation.
If you are addicted to agriculture, as I am, the mind sizzles with ideas about what 2015 will, could or should look like on the farm.
New crop varieties that could spread some risk while also limiting it occupy my thoughts along with the additional $25 to $100 per acre price tags.
Machinery ideas will give me more information with which to play … I mean work.
Crop pricing information, including the background behind the markets, is learned at these events.
And then there’s the new stuff, such as flexing 50-foot combine headers. I bent ours, half that size, last fall while harvesting mud.
It is a long month for me, but a good one, and from it will come many stories to tell in these pages.
