Crop Production Services is running its second annual open house for farmers to see new types of seeds, canola and silage demonstrations, foliar applied nutrients, fungicide and herbicide products.
The event last year was spread out on 55 acres and approximately 500 people attended. This year, numbers are bigger in all categories.
More than 800 farmers are expected to peruse the 155 acres of demonstration strips spread across three separate areas to find out how to improve their farmland.
“There’s so many new products and new ways to do things… (farmers) don’t know if they work,” said Pat Hemminger, wholesale seed manager with Ag Seeds of Canada.
Hemminger’s event is a chance for farmers to come see the research and testing being done on a variety of seeds, chemicals, fertilizers and more.
“We’ve got 20 different presenters representing 20 different companies,” he said.
Hemminger organized the event after a short-lived three-month retirement in 2006 proved boring and he felt his expertise as a certified seed expert was wasting away.
Shortly after being hired by Crop Production Services he told his boss about his idea for an open house style event for Western Canadian farmers.
“I like the company that I came to work for. I wanted to take them to the next level in seed,” he said.
“I know the benefits of working with certified seed.”
Those benefits include “cutting edge genetics,” “something pure,” and the ability to further differentiate from an initial seed, according to Hemminger.
Now, after a successful launch last year, reputable industry players like Monsanto, Dupont and Bayer have joined the fray to lure farmers to their latest innovations and products.
“Primarily, what we are showing are canola varieties that are available for farmers for next year,” said Monsanto spokesperson Harold Ammerman.
“To see such a large-scale demonstration site was quite new,” he said of last year’s event.
Three plots of land have been rented from farmers for the event, which is attracting people as far away as Saskatchewan this year, Hemminger said.
Environmentally Smart Nitrogen will have prospective buyers and green thumbs interested in its many claims that it can dramatically maximize yields and quality on particular crops.
Ammerman said the number of displays, products and representatives on hand are sure to “surprise growers.”
Bob Mastin of Sundre and owner of Mastin Seeds will be one of the representatives at the expo displaying his varieties of oats and seeds.
He was “really impressed” with how the event unfolded last year and expects a sizable yield of farmers attending this year.
“I would fully expect that they would have as many (as last year), if not more,” he said.
“Farmers are very hands on people… there’s no substitute for seeing the real thing in the field.”
The Crop Production Services event runs from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., July 27 and 28, one mile north of the junction at Highways 2A and 582 just northeast of Didsbury.
