World Ag Expo Lives Up to Its Name

I enjoyed the opportunity to attend the World Ag Expo in Tulare, CA last week and have to say that this show certainly lives up to its name with acres of exhibits, a world-class dairy industry presence and a large number of international visitors.

Paulsen Account Executive Heather Covrig joined me for the two-day visit to the show. Several of her clients were exhibiting including Grain States Soya (Soy Best), Ecolab and POET Nutrition.

Each of these clients reported lots of booth traffic with dairy producers much more optimistic than just one year ago. The outlook is good for improved profitability for the dairy industry—none too soon after a year of huge losses for these producers.

Another Paulsen client, Kubota Tractor Corporation, had a very impressive display of sub-compact and compact tractors, mid-size tractors, commercial and residential mowers, construction equipment and utility vehicles. Kubota’s new Compact Track Loader (CTL) was also on display and captured the attention of many who visited the Kubota exhibit.

As mentioned in a previous blog entry, we’re conducting a rather ambitious research effort to learn more about the media preferences and habits of today’s agricultural producers. At the Tulare show we surveyed a number of farmers to learn more about their preferred sources of ag production information and the steps they take in making buying decisions for key farm inputs, services and equipment. We’re learning some fascinating things. We’ll share our findings in a paper being developed by Kristi Moss, Paulsen media director.

In conjunction with this research, we’re doing a number of interviews with various agri-media representatives to gather their insights to current trends in ag communications. Special thanks to Jan Ford and Gary Vorpal of Hoard’s Dairyman, Dennis Duncan of Ag Alert and Chris Sidles of US Farm Data for sharing their thoughts with us during the World Ag Expo.

Ag communications are experiencing the same dramatic changes that we read about in the consumer and business-to-business sectors. We’re making a concerted effort to understand the meaning and impact of these changes and how they will affect our clients’ marketing programs.

Be watching for more information from us on this topic in the weeks ahead.

Kubota’s new Compact Track Loader (CTL) was the center of attention at the World Ag Expo in Tulare, CA. Pictured here (l to r), Greg Embury, Kubota’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing; Heather Covrig, Paulsen Marketing and Dr. Satoshi Iida, President of Kubota Tractor Corporation (USA).