(The Center Square) – Drones were a big hit with the crowd, touted for tracking livestock or applying herbicides with AI precision. So was Rob Sharkey – aka “The Shark Farmer” – this year’s celebrity presenter at the Spokane Ag Expo and Northwest Farm Forum.
Since 1977, Spokane has been the place to be during the first week of February for eastern Washington and north Idaho farmers and ranchers. They come to kick the tires on giant combine harvesters costing somewhere north of half a million dollars and sample the assorted candy typical of any trade show.
More than 220 vendors and organizations filled the floor of the Spokane Convention Center from Feb. 4 through Feb. 6., with an estimated attendance of almost 6,000.
Among the most popular giveaway items at the event were 5-gallon utility buckets, which are always useful on a farm.
“I’m so proud of our network,” said Melisa Paul, show director. “It’s not been a good market and we understand. The way producers and growers show up for each other is unlike anything else, and it makes me proud to serve them.”
Mid-winter is slow for most agricultural operations, perfect timing for families to get off the farm and visit the city. The three-day Ag Expo gives four generations an opportunity to connect, share experiences, and discuss the future.
Farmers always consider weather a top concern. The traditional opening keynote by Dr. Art Douglas – aka “The Weatherman” –focused on high-pressure ridges and ocean temperatures.
Douglas, professor emeritus of atmospheric sciences at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., presented the long-term weather forecast for the inland northwest and wheat-growing regions worldwide.
More than half of the country is under drought, and that’s likely to continue this month through the summer, he said.
The majority of Washington wheat is exported, heading into prices driven by global weather and politics.
Political weather was the subject on Wednesday morning, including tariffs and trade.
“I’ve changed this slide eight times in 14 hours,” joked Dr. Randall Fortenbery in his review of U.S. and world grain markets.
Fortenbery is chair of the Washington State University School of Economic Sciences and holds the Thomas B. Smick Small Grains Endowed Chair at WSU.
While any retaliation for tariffs will likely hit agricultural exports, it doesn’t mean farm incomes will go down, according to Fortenbery, based on his analysis of the 2018-2019 trade skirmish when federal payments offset impacts.
Fortenbery pointed out that the response from trading partners will be driven by emotions as well as prices and to wait and see.
While net farm income has been above the 20-year average for the last four years, debt has been accumulating faster than equity.
“Real estate is getting back to the kind of levels we saw in 1980,” Fortenbery said.
The 1980s farm crisis –a severe economic downturn that affected American farmers, with devastating consequences for rural communities – led to the Food Security Act of 1985.
“How crop insurance comes out of the Farm Bill will be significant,” Fortenbery said.
He noted the bill is stalled in Congress, with a split not along partisan lines but urban versus rural interests.
According to Duane Lenz, retired general manager of the beef industry analysts at Colorado-based CattleFax, the news is sunnier for cattle producers.
Noting the current record-high beef prices, Lenz said, “Beef demand is not necessarily down; there’s just been less out there to be purchased.”
In addition to general session speakers, attendees had a choice of 37 seminars. Ten sessions offered pesticide recertification credits; others covered a variety of topics from business planning, loans, and insurance to crop inputs, energy policy and soil health.
On the last day of the show, the show floor was filled with the distinctive blue jackets of the inland northwest’s Future Farmers of America members as they checked out their options.
Sharkey, an Illinois grain farmer and entrepreneur who thinks outside the box, delivered an inspirational message, encouraging high schoolers to persevere without fear in pursuing a career in agriculture.
“Find people who are going to help you stand up, and help you to be the absolute, absolute best,” he said.