It’s still a place where an adventurous child can climb into the pilot seat of a huge tractor.
It’s still a place where farmers gather to compare techniques and prices.
And despite a lower turnout this harvest, after 23 years it’s still the Ag Expo.
Many farmers and expo patrons say the popularity of the festival’s subject has ebbed off over the years.
“A farmer cannot buy land anymore because it’s sold for houses,” said Gary Rowe, one of about 280 exhibitors featured in the expo. “Our customer base has dwindled tremendously.”
Rowe, a Holt resident and owner of Growe Systems Inc., said he had to broaden his market to entice more clients since he began the company in 1985.
The company, which specializes in the manufacture of portable tin shelters for farm animals, began making the sheds for pigs but now sells them to keep cars, lawn equipment, horses, cows and other livestock safe from the elements.
“People in the farming industry are trying to find a niche market,” Rowe said.
The three-day Ag Expo ends at 4 p.m. today. The event is located on 35 acres near the intersection of Mount Hope Road and Farm Lane.
While today may not prove the last for the state’s largest agricultural show, officials say the expo’s future is uncertain.
With a dwindling economy and smaller turnouts since the early 1990s, Ajit Srivastava, chairman of the Department of Agricultural Engineering, said things are looking gloomy for the annual farm show.
“General economic trend is a major factor in that,” he said. “If that trend continues, there’s a cause for worry.”
The department is the expo’s main sponsor.
Srivastava said the festival reached its peak in the late 1980s, when it featured more than 350 exhibitors each season. The number dropped to 310 last year - about 30 more than this year.
“We are definitely down quite a bit,” he said. “They’ve been steadily going down.”
Srivastava said one way to save the expo might be to move it to a different date, since it coincided with the wheat harvest this year.
“But those things are hard to predict,” he said.
Another saving grace might be to expand the expo’s theme into new areas, Srivastava said.
“So far we have primarily focused on cash crops like corn and beans and wheat,” he said. “It’s time we look at areas like hobby farmers.”
That’s an idea that could resurrect expo interest for people like Dan David.
A self-proclaimed “wannabe farmer,” David said he visits the expo to see new equipment and meet the exhibitors.
“They’re not out here to impress anybody,” David said. “You got to be one smart person to be in farming.”
Although he’s also noticed a smaller turnout at expo, David said exhibitors can plan on his continuing attendance. He said he’s been a regular at the festival for six years.
“A guy can go see so much and hear all the explaining without going all over the place,” David said. “But (exhibitors) can’t afford to come here anymore. It’s like losing a week of work.”
Although the Ag Expo isn’t seeing a large numbers of exhibitors and visitors, Srivastava said the festival still is a valuable service to Michigan farmers and Spartans.
“It’s a chance for MSU to show what we do,” he said. “It’s a chance to toot our own horn, if you will.”
Amy Bartner can be reached at bartnera@msu.edu.
