Is it worth it: travelling for a whole day, the jet lag, the cost of making the trip? I’m talking about going to Hanover, Germany, for the largest farm equipment and technology show on the planet.
The answer is yes.
And it’s probably something many more farmers from around the world should do if they are keen on the business on the whole because the whole is what you get when you go to Agritechnica.
The zero-minimum till, prairies-style of farming we do is only a tiny part of what is present at the event. Here in Western Canada, we have some of the world’s best short-line farm equipment makers and we can visit them anytime we choose and see what they do in our own fields.
Read Also
Growth plates are instrumental in shaping a horse’s life
Young horse training plans and workloads must match their skeletal development. Failing to plan around growth plates can create lifelong physical problems.
But if you want to see what the rest of the world is doing with their land and their crops, and if you have a desire to put your farm into perspective when it comes to worldwide food production, then make the trip to Germany’s Agritechnica.
Other people’s farmer/blacksmith moms had smart kids with torches and circuit testers too, and their stuff lines 24 exhibit halls over 91 acres of show site.
Indirectly, Agritechnica was founded by writer and engineer Max Eyth, who travelled to England in the 19th century and discovered farmers there had organized farm shows where they compared notes and showed off what they were doing. It was farm extension at its most basic. Go somewhere else, see what they do, come home and improve what you do.
Eyth came back to his native Germany and founded the farmer association that is DLG, which operates Agritechnica.
Agritechnica is where the world shows off what it has wrought in farm machinery. There are more good ag ideas per sq. metre than anywhere on the planet.
You might come back with your own ideas or at least a sense of how you fit into the world’s food production puzzle.
Not to mention, there are some really cool farming tools and international marketing forums there, and who couldn’t make a business case for being a part of that?
You can’t see everything. In six days you get one minute and 15 seconds at each of the 2,600 booths.
I know more than when I left, and I’m just a little poorer.
