One of Salina’s biggest agriculture events is back for the 57th year as the Mid America Farm Expo comes to downtown Salina this week.
Taking place between Wednesday and Friday, the expo will be at Tony’s Pizza Events Center and Saline County Livestock and Expo Center. More than 300 exhibits and around 275 companies from across the U.S. are heading to Salina.
The Salina Area Chamber of Commerce hosts the expo each year, and it is one of the main opportunities for the chamber to focus on the community’s agricultural aspects and connections.
“I try to remind folks when we talk about the farm expo that Salina is a rural community,” said Eric Brown, the chamber president and CEO. “Since we’re that regional hub for a lot of folks, whether it’s…the retail side or medical appointments or things like that.”
Brown said these people come from small communities to do many of these things and in turn are spending dollars in Salina.
“As the agricultural community goes, so does Salina in a lot of ways just because we get so much support from those smaller, outlying towns, financially and with those revenue streams,” Brown said.
Helping give information in an uncertain time. Brown said this year’s expo is coming during times where there is a great amount of uncertainty.
While there have, in the past, been elected officials or their representatives at the expo, Brown said this year the chamber’s agriculture committee wanted to focus on what the current nature of the agricultural industry looks like and how policies are being impacted.
“We’re bringing in a gentleman named Ben Brown,” Brown said. “He’s out of the University of Missouri, working out of its extension (office) and ag policy institute.”
Eric Brown said Ben Brown will be at the expo on Wednesday to talk about ag policies in this uncertain time.
“There’s a lot going on, with COVID over the last couple of years and now with the Russian and Ukraine war happening,” Eric Brown said.
As Ukraine is a large agricultural producer, the current conflict has impacted the global markets.
“He’s going to be here talking about that,” Eric Brown said. “He’s also going to kind of talk about the ag outlook (for this year), from the producer’s side, which will be more interactive.”
The expo will also have a time on Thursday where it focuses on soil health with Kansas Soil Health Alliance hosting a session. “They’ll have a moderated panel of producers from all over the state,” Eric Brown said. Also on Thursday, there will be a session by Prairieland Partners to discuss precision agriculture.
Finally, on Friday the expo will host its usual commodity market outlook, this year Matt Hines, a commodity broker from Loewen and Associates, will present.
Eric Brown said it is important to give the agriculture community the best knowledge and understanding, and the people and organizations that are coming to Salina this week will be able to give it.
“Some of these folks, on a regional level, are really well known,” Eric Brown said. “All of those types of (topics) are very timely in the world of what producers are trying to track right now.”
Information for the 57th Annual Mid America Farm Expo. The expo will be going on from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 23 and Thursday, March 24 and then from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday, March 25.
More information, including a list of exhibitors, can be found at the chamber’s website, www.salinakansas.org/midamericafarmexpo.html.
Sessions this year will take place at the following times in the 4H Building:
Wednesday, March 23 – Ag Policies in an Uncertain World with Ben Brown, 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Power of Ag Producer Wisdom, A 2022 Agricultural Outlook with Ben Brown, 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Thursday, March 24 – Precision Ag and Ag Data, by Prairieland Partners, 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Real World Soil Health Panel, by Kansas Soil Health Alliance, 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Friday, March 25 – Commodity Market Outlook, with Matt Hines, 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
