Opening day of the Colusa Farm Show on Tuesday brought a flood of visitors through the gates of the Colusa County Fairgrounds to learn about the latest in farm equipment and agriculture-related services.
The three-day exposition runs through today – with the gates opening at 9 AM.
“We will be closing at 3 PM on Thursday,” said Farm Show Committee and Fair Board member Terry Bressler. “We move it up an hour.”
Those who attended the exposition Tuesday and Wednesday said they couldn’t wait for the show’s return, after the event was canceled in 2021 because of the pandemic.
“I can’t believe how much we missed it last year,” said Leticia Ramirez, of Yuba City, who brings her children every year to see big harvesting equipment up close. “Now, it’s just like old times.”
The Colusa Farm Show, billed as the “granddaddy” of farm trade shows, was established in the mid 1960s as the Orchard Machinery Fair, and was the template for the World Ag Expo, which runs Feb. 8-10 in Tulare, and is now the largest outdoor exposition of its kind.
Visitors were greeted for the three-day run of the Colusa Farm Show by manufacturers and retailers of farm equipment, conserversation experts, and others who provide one-stop shopping for all farm services.
“It was a little windy (opening day), but all the people I talked to saw a good crowd,” Bressler said.
Sweepers, sprayers, combines, tractors, shakers, scrapers, tillers, mowers, risers, and farm vehicles were just some of the equipment on display.
“The first day was better than I expected with this wind, but there were a lot of people here,” said Tony Landini, of Iron Tree Solutions, an innovative fabrication company that makes modern farm equipment for modern farmers. “I saw a lot of vendors have a lot of success.”
Landini, who was raised on a ranch west of Willows, has been with Iron Tree for just one year, and was showing the company’s famous 24-foot Swingblade land scraper he helped build.
“The Farm Show is great,” Landini said. “It’s a beautiful sight to walk around and see all this innovative farm equipment and people selling all this good stuff – which is probably better than they are even making it out to be. All these farmers coming together in commerce like this just makes something great happen. It’s like Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner with your family; you find out things you wouldn’t find out about otherwise. That is what happens when farmers and vendors get together; you find out information that you wouldn’t find anywhere else.”
The 56th Colusa Farm Show concludes today at the Colusa County Fairgrounds, 1303 10th St., Colusa.
The show boasts about 150 indoor vendors and 250 vendors spread across the grounds. Food concessions stands are located near the front entrance and inside Festival Hall. ■