AgWired coverage of opening day at the National Farm Machinery Show is sponsored by:


2010 National Farm Machinery Show Photo Album

It was kind of a slow start to the 2010 National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, thanks to the weather, but by lunch time it appeared to be just about back to a normal crowd.

I talked with Harold Workman, president and CEO of the Kentucky Exposition Center which handles the big show, and he emphasized that it’s business as usual for the four day show. “We got some pretty northern weather here with 6-8 inches of snow that came in yesterday,” he said. “But the interstates are clear, we got the parking lots cleared off, and a lot of people are coming in to the show.”

This is the 45th year for the show which Harold said started in one little corner of one of their wings and grown to more than 800 exhibitors filling over 1.2 million square feet of blessedly indoor space. “It really has become an icon – kind of a barometer for the agribusiness industry,” he said. Attendance is normally right around 300,000 for all four days of the show, including the Championship Tractor Pull sponsored by Syngenta. That event is just a few years younger than the NFMS and is always a sell out.

Listen to or download my interview with Harold Workman in the player below, and enjoy a little 360 degree view video of one of the exhibit hall wings from high atop the John Deere tower here: