All things agriculture
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 year, 2 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
Family drama
‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’ opens Friday in Quincy
QUINCY — The Biblical story of Joseph will come to life in song this weekend, as Quincy Valley Allied Arts opens “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” Friday. “(The writers) originally wrote it for a kids’ school,” Director Brian Higgins said. “You have a bunch of different genres of music. There’s a country-western song in the show. There’s a sad song. There’s a little bit of early rap elements. It’s kind of a tour through different musical genres to keep kids interested.” “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” follows a story familiar to many from the Bible. The patriarch Jacob has 12 sons, but his clear favorite is Joseph, the second-youngest, who has dreams that his destiny is to rule over his brothers. Naturally, the other 11 are not huge fans of this idea, and when Jacob gives Joseph a fancy coat of many colors, that proves too much for them and they sell him into slavery.
Youth Dynamics to mark 30th anniversary
MOSES LAKE — Youth Dynamics will hold a three-day party this week to mark 30 years of Christian outreach. “I was talking to the president of Youth Dynamics, and I (said), ‘I’d really like to do a celebration weekend,’” said Moses Lake Youth Dynamics Director Sean Sallis. “It’s not a fundraiser; we’re not going to have an auctioneer here selling items or anything like that.” The event will celebrate four pillars of Youth Dynamics’ ministry over the years.
Farm fun
Palmer’s Adventure Farm features friendly animals, play equipment and apple artillery
MOSES LAKE — There’s a whole lot to do at Palmer’s Adventure Farm, about five miles east of Moses Lake. We have a train for the kids to go on,” said Shane Palmer, who owns Palmer’s Adventure Farm with his brother Kyle Palmer and their wives Vanessa and Janelle. “We added animals this spring. We’ve got a mini-Highland cow. We’ve got goats and bunnies and donkeys, and they can feed the animals. We just put in two jump pads for the kids. They’re air pillows inflated with a big blower and a fan, and the kids jump on it like a trampoline and have a blast. We’ve got a mega-slide (and) a double barrel slide into a corn pit. It’s like a sandbox, but it’s full of corn and the kids play in it.” Palmer’s Adventure Farm started out four years ago as Strawbelly’s Straw Maze on Wheeler Road, Shane said.