AgWired

A tradition at Commodity Classic is the New Holland mower drawing.

Each year registered growers are entered into a drawing. This year it’s for a New Holland zero turn radius mower. The drawing is held near the end of the trade show session. Hundreds of people gather around to hear Al Pell announce the winner.

You have to be present to win.

After he calls the winner’s name it’s also announced over the intercom system and the winner has about 60 seconds to show up to claim their prize.

The winner this year is Michelle Swenson from Elbow Lake, MN.

She was about the 7th name called and she was there so she got the prize.

She was a very happy and excited winner.

I’m not sure how she’s going to get it on the plane back home though.

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The trade show at Commodity Classic featured all kinds of things you can do.

Once again this year the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council brought their Indy simulator car. It was a busy booth from the looks of it when I stopped by.

You’ve probably never driven an Indy car and you probably never will. But you can pretend if you stop by.

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Kip Cullers might have one of the most recognizable faces here at Commodity Classic.

He’s a corn and soybean yield record holder. I caught this shot of him enjoying some Dippin’ Dots ice cream at the BASF booth.

They’ve got a much larger than life size picture of him on their display which is behind him.

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I’m sorry Hugh but I had to do it.

I’m sure Hugh Whaley thought he was in a nice quiet little nook away from the crowd as he was working that Blackberry. I guess having just come out of the Commodity Classic trade show with all its noise I was struck with the calm intensity with which Hugh was thumbing away.

I think he’s one of the hardest working guys in agricultural communications and a long time friend. In fact, I remember when Hugh used to work for the American Soybean Association long before there was a Commodity Classic. Now he’s one of the key leaders of Osborn & Barr Communications.

Post Update: Hugh emailed me to make sure I know that he doesn’t use a Blackberry. He has a Palm Treo (like mine) and he’s not a crackberry addict but he may be a little Palm-Fried or maybe TreoOD.

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Now this is the kind of “booth” I like. Just pull your yacht up to the dock, hang out a banner and say “Y’all stop by now.”

Successful Farming had this one parked outside the convention center and people were wandering out to enjoy some sunshine today.

Waving from the dock next to the boat is Gene Hemphill and Holly Fritz.

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People getting on the shuttle buses at Commodity Classic today got a nice new backpack from BASF.

I saw them all over the trade show floor this evening. You know how you’re always picking something up at a trade show. The bags gave growers a handy way to carry that stuff around.

I kept hearing people who didn’t have one asking, “Where did you get that bag?”

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The opening reception at Commodity Classic was sponsored by Syngenta and had all your usual things like food, beverages, music and fellowship.

This year it also featured something I’ve never seen before. Crab races. This is definitely out of the ordinary.

Basically, you have people betting on who’s crab is going to win. They’re put under a little net in the middle of a table. The race master lifts up the net and the winner makes it to the outside circle first.

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