Ag Expo helps connect local agriculture industry

By Lethbridge Herald on February 26, 2025.

Visitors to Ag Expo on Wednesday morning check out some of the 300 exhibitors at this year’s show which runs through Friday. Doors are open from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. at the Agri-Food Hub and Trade Centre. Herald photo by Al Beeber

Al Beeber – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – abeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

Making connections. That theme was heard throughout the Agri-Food Hub and Trade Centre Wednesday morning as Ag Expo opened its doors on the first of three days of everything agriculture.

Ag Expo runs also today and Friday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.

On Wednesday, visitors began filing in the doors as soon as they opened for the second annual Ag Expo inside the trade centre.

And for exhibitors, making connections is what the show is all about – connecting with old and new customers as well as others in the same and different industries.

All space inside the building is being utilized for Ag Expo, from the exhibition halls to salons and meeting rooms during the three-day event.

And in the south parking lot, machinery row has returned to give visitors a look at the latest innovations in farm equipment.

Plenty of equipment, from commercial trailers and tractor units to even a massive bean combine built in Brazil, filled booths inside all the exhibition halls.

Five countries from three continents are represented at this year’s show, giving it a global flavour. From banks to drones to fertilizers and irrigation equipment, everything agriculture can be found at this long-running showcase.

If past years are an indicator, between 6,000-10,000 people could attend the show, said Paul Kingsmith, Lethbridge and District Exhibition director of Community Engagement, as doors opened Wednesday morning.

But perhaps more importantly than the number of visitors is the type of visitors, Kingsmith noted. They’re people involved in agriculture, who have a keen interest in the latest innovations and trends.

“Beyond the raw numbers, too, is it’s the right people in this room this week. It means the people who are here are interested in agriculture, they feel that this is an important show where business can get done and they can make those connections.”

And while people are browsing the wide arrange of booths, exhibiting companies are using rooms inside the hub to stage business meetings. And this year 300 exhibitors are filling floor space inside.

Normally Ag Expo runs Tuesday through Thursday but this year it was moved back a day.

“This is one of the best days of the year when Ag Expo kicks off, when you get in here and you see all the hard work that’s gone in” and all the equipment that can fit inside, said Kingsmith.

“The agriculture community is a tight-knit one and it all feeds on each other and depends on each other. Everybody may have competing businesses but in a lot of ways they work together. So to get everybody here under one roof and to be talking agriculture all at the same time, it’s where relationships are made, it’s where business is done. It’s a great chance for people to connect with a wide variety of people within the industry.”

The first year in the Hub last year gave the LDE ideas about what to do this year, said Kingsmith. Demand for the show enabled the LDE to re-establish machinery row, he added, which highlights the health of the industry and the show itself.

One vendor, Vanee Farm Centres, is a long-established local company and the largest New Holland dealership in southern Alberta.

Michael Vas, sales manager of Vanee, said the show is exciting for his company.

“This year is turning out to be a stellar year with the weather co-operating, we’re able to get big equipment in,” said Vas, whose company is highlighting its main product line, including new-generation combines, high-clearance sprayers and a new four-wheel-drive tractor on tracks.

Vanee has partnered with the LDE on Ag Expo this year and the company is excited to be participating, said Vas. Vanee Farm Centre has grown to four locations in southern Alberta. It has a presence from B.C. To Saskatchewan and from the U.S. border to Calgary, said Vas.

“The industry has grown so much technology-wise,” said Vas, and the market in southern Alberta is a diverse one with different crops being produced.

“It’s such a big industry but it’s a tight-knit industry as well. Shows like this are fantastic because everybody can get together in one big, basically, meeting.”

Another company with strong area roots at the show, with a booth fittingly in the UFA Hall, was UFA itself.

UFA Co-operative, a 100-per-cent Canadian-owned and member-operated company, had representatives from all facets of its business at the show, with staff from Lethbridge as well as Vulcan, Claresholm and head office meeting customers.

To UFA, customers are family and Ag Expo is a chance for that family to have a reunion.

Brett Wood, customer account manager from Claresholm, said the company, which has existed since 1909, has been involved with Ag Expo for about 25 years.

“It’s important. A lot of our growers and customers actually do come to the show to visit us. They look forward to seeing us. They ask us year after year if we’re still attending.”

For the UFA, it’s a chance to connect with customers outside of the store environment.

“It’s all about relationships for us,” said Wood. “They’re not just customers, they’re family. That’s what UFA prides ourselves on.”

Another company at the show, Rocking Horse Industries from Strathmore, was showcasing an integral piece of equipment in the feedlot and cattle industry: a hydraulic squeeze made by a Canadian company called Arrowquip in Manitoba.

“If you can go through an entire day of sorting cows or running cows through and you’re still happy and healthy and not tired, the cattle’s nice and quiet, it’s a good day, said Nick Peoples of Rocking Horse, whose company used the squeeze before starting to market it to others.”Feedlots using it, abusing it, calling us and telling us how to great it is – that’s all you can ask for.”

A quality squeeze for branding and vaccinating cattle is important for feedlot operators putting through large numbers of animals. One lot alone has 15 of the squeezes, said Peoples.

“The ease of anybody being able to run them but still being quiet and easy on the cattle, at the end of the day, the less stress you put on the cattle the better it is. They’re going to go back into their pens and keep eating – they don’t have that stress on them. In the cow/calf operation, you’re not stressing them out, the milk consumption is still good.

“There’s a lot of science behind keeping stress down in cattle that I don’t think enough of us talk about, to be very honest with you,” Peoples added.