31st Farm Show Opens with Optimism
Published: Friday, January 17, 2020
Despite the gloom and doom that accompanies much of the farm news, when it comes to the weather and commodity prices, a buzz of optimism could be sensed on the expansive floor of the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum where the 31st annual Fort Wayne Farm Show opened Tuesday morning.
With massive centerpieces, like the state-of-the-art John Deere chopper with a price tag closing in on $1 million, farmer confidence should be high.
An example of nearly every size, shape and form of equipment—finishes buffed to a blinding, high-gloss shine—on the market was on display, and a multitude of services and a variety of advisors were on hand at the more than 1,100 vendor booths.
Joe Wegener, attending the show for the first time in 10 years with his 2-year-old son, Barrett, and father, Arnie, was astounded by scene.
"I grew up on (Arnie's) dairy farm, but I weld for a living at a local welding shop," Joe said. "We do a fair amount of farm repair, but it's amazing to see how far the technology has come."
Arnie, who milks about 35 cows on his Wakarusa operation, said that while farmers have an intimate appreciation for the show, the general public would also benefit from taking it in.
"I come every year," he said. "There's always something new and I'm just amazed at what's available, especially when you think about the money farmers lay out to put food on the plate. I wish all Americans would go to one of these. Farmers put the best, safest and cheapest food products on the table, and I just wish people would appreciate it a little bit more."
Matt Carmichael, a salesman for Plevna Implement Co., which has offices in Nappanee and Kokomo, was standing guard next to one of the show's main attractions, a monstrous, sleek, black class 8 Fendt Ideal combine that takes up nearly as much acreage as Arnie Wegener farms.
"Fendt's been around for years, but this is the first one they built from the ground up," said Carmichael. "Fendt has never been at this show before, so this year we decided to bring this and a tractor and show the brand off. They built (the combine) for large growers and it was developed for high-capacity. It's got the longest rotors and grain tank on the market."
It also has a price of $500,000 for one with floater tires that dwarf a 6-foot-tall person, and up to $600,000 for one with tracks.
"There's been a big trend and a lot of people have been following it on social media," Carmichael said. "We get a lot of phone calls on them and demoed it to a lot of competitors in the fall and got a lot of good reviews. There's been a pretty good crowd of people looking at it."
Interest is high in all things farming despite some of the economic news surrounding the industry.
"I think the outlook is a lot better than it was a couple years ago," Carmichael said. "The prices have come back a little bit and that's giving customers a little more positive feeling about themselves. We saw more volume of sales at the end of 2019 than what we did the last couple years. The sales outlook is bright for farm machinery."
Located along the fringe of the show is the Indiana Soybean Alliance booth manned by elected representatives John Emmert and Larry Wilkinson.
Their props and giveaways are on the smaller side, including skinny tubes of lip balm made from soybean oil and a Wheel-of-Fortune-style wheel.
"Everybody coming through here has been really good," said Emmert. "Everybody seems to be in a good mood. What we do is have them spin this wheel, and wherever it lands, we answer a question for them. Then we ask them a question and they're supposed to answer it and we give them a prize. That gets them feeling good."
One of the Soybean Alliance's feel-good stories is represented by a quart of Biosynthetic motor oil Wilkinson held in his left hand.
"There's a new use for soybeans," he said. "It's high-oleic soybean lubricating oil for gasoline engines, that's biodegradable. I think it (debuted) just this summer in Indiana, down in Indianapolis. It lasts a lot longer between oil changes."
"If this catches on good," Emmert added, "it could be one of the biggest uses for high-oleic soybean oil in the world. It's not a hard bean to raise, it's an easy bean to raise, and a lot of farmers are growing them now."
The oil is only available online at a cost of about $20 a quart.
As the industry continues to innovate, could boom times be ahead for farmers?
"The (Phase 1 China trade deal) is going to help the stock market and the grain market," Emmert said. "And, the grain market hasn't really been that bad because of the fact the government did give us some extra funds to hold us over."
Said Wilkinson, "I think farmers are pretty optimistic."
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