At Ag in Motion: Wednesday sets single-day attendance record

The anticipated big crowd for the second day of Ag in Motion came through in a hefty way with a new one-day record being set.

Show manager Rob O’Connor said 13,084 attendees came to the Langham, Sask. event on Day 2, breaking the record set in 2019 and coming on top of 9,800 people filing through the gates on Day 1.

“That puts us slightly ahead of 2019 numbers by about five or 600,” said O’Connor.

“I feel really good about how yesterday, and even the day before — when we had the rain — how it worked out for everybody.”

While O’Connor is not expecting record-breaking attendance on the final day of the show, the weather is perfect, the exhibitors are ready and opportunity for picking up knowledge on the latest equipment, crop varieties, treatments and research is boundless across the 100-acre site.

“I think the feeling here is optimistic,” said O’Connor.

“Even when we had rain on the Tuesday of the show, it was very upbeat. There are a lot of people who expect that type of day isn’t good for a trade — which is probably true — except in the agriculture world.”

Staff are already fielding interest in next year’s show, which O’Connor said he anticipates will see more than the already-record number of 572 exhibitors travel to the event.

Honey Bee Harvest Equipment is just one of a number of companies using the show to launch new products; Spencer Groth, marketing manager for the Saskatchewan-based firm, said they’re launching its new air flex draper header, which fits on Case IH’s power unit.

Honey Bee launched its original air flex draper header eight years ago and is now introducing the latest version.

“What we’ve done with the Air-Flex NXT is we’ve built a new header around the original fundamentals — because the fundamentals work — but we’ve got new features that go around that original design,” he said.

Andrew Scheer, Regina-Qu’Appelle MP and former Conservative Party leader, took in the sights of the event on Day 2, calling it a great showcase of Canadian research and innovation.

“Year after year, the technology gets more sophisticated, the machinery gets more advanced and it’s an important part of this province’s economy, for our country in general,” said Scheer.

He said there is frustration in the ag sector about federal policies such as the carbon tax and initiatives that could limit fertilizer use and production, which would hurt the ability of producers to produce.

“Let’s take away some of the punishing policies like the carbon tax. Let’s park that idea and never see it in the light of day,” he said.

— Alex McCuaig reports for the Western Producer from Medicine Hat.