All things agriculture
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 year, 8 months AGO
Heavy equipment fills the exhibitor space at last year’s Spokane Ag Show. This year’s show is Feb 4-6.
FILE PHOTO
WSU Professor T. Randall Fortenbery delivers his ag economic forecast at the 2024 Spokane Ag Show. Fortenbery will return to the show this year.
Representatives from The Teff Company discuss the Ethiopian grain with attendees at the 2024 Spokane Ag Show. The Teff Company will be at this year’s show Feb. 4-6, one of more than 200 exhibitors scheduled.
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | January 20, 2025 3:00 AM
SPOKANE — All things agricultural will be on display the first week of February at the 48th annual Spokane Ag Show at the Spokane Convention Center. The Spokane Ag Show is one of the largest ag expos in the region, said Show Director Melisa Paul.
“A typical year brings in just short of 6,000 attendees,” Paul said. “We’re expecting 230-plus exhibitors and nearly 3,000 exhibitor reps. So far, we’re putting on 47 professional farm forum seminars, which is standard for us.”
Paul said that ten of those seminars will be pesticide recertification courses. The certified crop applicator, or CCA, credits from those seminars are approved in both Washington and Idaho, and seven of them are approved in Oregon as well. Since a CCA has to earn 40 hours of continuing education credits for every two-year period, the ag show is a good place to get them.
“(This season) is the one time a year we can get these guys off the farm,” Paul said. “It's been a main point of ours to make sure that they're meeting their minimums year over year.”
The seminars offered at the Spokane Ag Show are a mixed bag, and keynote speakers include some impressive names in the ag community. Dr. Art Douglas, known as The Weatherman, is a professor emeritus and climate expert from Creighton University who will deliver an annual forecast Tuesday. On Wednesday T. Randall Fortenbery, a Spokane Ag Show staple, will share his thoughts on the economic outlook for the year in a number of agricultural spheres. In tandem with him will be CattleFax analyst Duane Lenz.
“We've really seen an increase in cattlemen at our show and cattle products,” Paul said. “We know that a lot of our producers are deeply tied to the ag industry as well.”
Thursday’s program will feature Rob Sharkey, popularly known as The Sharkfarmer. Sharkey, a fifth-generation grain farmer from Illinois, hosts podcasts and radio shows with unconventional perspectives on farming. He also hosts a TV show on RFD-TV that’s now in its ninth season, Paul said.
“He's really authentic, and he asks the hard questions and reaches out to the other side of our world,” Paul said. “His underlying thing is to make sure that agriculture has the right voice out there, and that we're working to correct a lot of the falsities that are out there, and he's done a good job being an advocate.”
Thursday is Future Farmers of America Day at the Ag Show, Paul said, and Sharkey’s presentation for them will be called “Everyone Thought I Was Crazy.” He’ll also have two smaller breakout sessions later in the day titled “Sharks Don’t Swim Backwards” and “Turn … Engage … Hit Resume.”
“We brought him in about six years ago, and I had the pleasure of doing some of his podcasts with him.,” Paul said. “He's got a massive social media following. I think it's well over two million. So, he has a great reach and is just a fantastic, humble advocate for the industry.”
Smaller seminars will delve into some specialized agronomy and some of the financial and legal niceties of running a modern agricultural operation.
For those times when attendees aren’t sitting in seminars, the main hall will be filled to the gills with exhibitors offering … well, just about everything that can possibly be applied to the ag industry. Equipment dealers, seed dealers and auctioneers will share space with the newest high-tech gadgetry.
New this year to the Spokane Ag Show is a scholarship program. The Spokane Ag Show will present two scholarships of $4,000 and one of $2,000 to high school seniors from the area who plan to study agriculture or ag-related trades.
“We're a nonprofit organization that deeply believes in serving our industry,” Paul said. “A big part of that is promoting and protecting jobs and investments and supporting youth at our next generation and making sure that they're well served.”
SPOKANE AG SHOW
Feb. 4-6
Spokane Convention Center
202 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.
WSU Professor T. Randall Fortenbery delivers his ag economic forecast at the 2024 Spokane Ag Show. Fortenbery will return to the show this year.
Representatives from The Teff Company discuss the Ethiopian grain with attendees at the 2024 Spokane Ag Show. The Teff Company will be at this year’s show Feb. 4-6, one of more than 200 exhibitors scheduled.ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Endless battle
Noxious Weed Control Board works to keep invasive plants under control
MOSES LAKE — Some of the nastiest plants in Grant County were the topic of a class led by Jay Johnson, a consultant with the Grant County Noxious Weed Control Board, Tuesday. The Noxious Weed Control Board, as its name would suggest, is tasked with keeping weeds under control in Grant County. That’s not a small job; the board’s website lists 129 species of noxious weeds that are found around Grant County. A noxious weed is defined as an invasive, non-native plant that threatens agricultural crops, local ecosystems or fish and wildlife habitat, according to the Noxious Weed Control Board. Washington state law requires that these weeds be identified and their spread kept to a minimum, if not completely eradicated. “We’re one of those agencies a lot of people don’t really understand,” Johnson said. “We’re a county office and … our funding is tax-based assessment. When you get your tax bill and you look down at all the expenses that you pay for, there we are.”
BASIN EVENTS: Oct. 16-24
COLUMBIA BASIN — Whether you feel like shopping, crafting, learning or seeing a show, there’s something happening for you this week in the Basin. Oct. 16 ‘My Family (Mi Familia)’ screening Spanning three generations, “My Family (Mi Familia)” is a heartfelt drama that follows the Sánchez family as they build their lives in East Los Angeles. Through love, hardship, triumph, and sacrifice, the film explores the immigrant experience, the strength of family bonds, and the traditions that connect one generation to the next. Lowrider show and taco truck before the screening. Sponsored by Columbia Basin Allied Arts, EDUBS C/S and the Moses Lake Creative District. $12 per person. Doors open at 6 p.m., film begins at 7 p.m. at the Moses Lake Civic Center Auditorium, 401 S. Balsam St. Tickets and info: www.cba-arts.org.
Moses Lake author encourages women to look beyond church culture norms
MOSES LAKE — A Moses Lake author’s book, “A Christian Woman Striving to Live Her Faith in a Man-Controlled World,” takes aim at the role to which many churches relegate the female half of their congregations. “It’s to encourage women in the faith,” Linda Curran said. “A lot of churches say, ‘Teach Sunday school, do this, do that, but don’t (evangelize.)’" In her book, Curran recounts a time when she moved to a new community and joined a church there. She was surprised to learn that, as a new female member, she had been automatically assigned church cleaning duties. When she questioned it, she wrote, she was met with condescension and her objections were brushed aside. In other churches, she said, women who were capable of teaching were relegated to “women’s ministry.”