It’s the largest farm show in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, and it returns to the NC State Fairgrounds in Raleigh Wednesday, January 31 through Friday, February 2, David Zimmerman is manager of the Southern Farm Show, another big show planned for this year, coming up at the end of January 1 to February. What can we expect this year at the State Fairgrounds?

Well, you can expect a full house again the we are filling the fairgrounds again all the buildings there will be again be packed with again are putting up five large exhibit tents, which will be full of exhibitors and also acres of outdoor spaces again, it has every year the largest event that takes place at the fairgrounds outside of the state fair itself.

What can someone expect to see if someone has never been to the southern farm show before David? Tell us some things they can expect to see out there?

Well, the Southern Farm Show is a trade show for farmers so there’s not not any consumer products there. This is all farm equipment, supplies and services. And we make it that way intentionally because we don’t want the city folk out there. getting in the way of what we’re trying to get done. But this is a trade show, the way we’ve run this show for many years. So all 400 or so exhibitors are strictly ag related type companies.

Now when you say ag related, I believe I’ve also seen some other industries like like maybe lawn care, that sort of thing. They’re out there as well, right?

Yes, the show has over the years evolved so that what happened is the companies like paste and John Deere and New Holland started bringing their construction equipment because they realized that there were a lot of construction professionals coming into the show, either their farmers themselves or you know, grew up on a farm and just come to the show. So now, the southern Farm Show is not only the largest farm show in the three state area but it’s also the biggest construction equipment show we’ve got all the brand names of construction equipment excavating type equipment. And it’s also the largest show in the region for professional landscaping. So all the major mower brands are there. So it’s, it’s really kind of evolved over the years to incorporate those those folks.

Another thing that I saw last year that I thought was fascinating, was some of the services and ancillary companies that were there like there were there were builders there that farmers could talk to about constructing some of the buildings that they need in their operation. Can you tell us some about what we could see along those lines?

Yeah, we have a really good selection of folks. Great outbuildings, barns, any type of structure that will be used on the farm, so there’ll be a really good selection of those folks.

In addition to that, a lot of farmers come to the show, to also attend commodity meetings. And of course, the agricultural forum, where Ag Commissioner Steve Troxler is going to be speaking giving his annual address there on the state of agriculture in North Carolina. So this brings in a lot of folks from across the state, from across the spectrum of agriculture.

The Ag Development Forum which is put on by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture is going to be at the Holshouser Building on Thursday. And it is not only the commissioner’s kind of state of agriculture address for the coming year, but also the economic forecast and some other things to do with agriculture. So it’s kind of the annual agricultural powwow for folks out here in this state.

David, for folks that want more information, they want to find out what they can expect and get an overview of it, you have a website. Tell us about that.

Yep, southernfarmshow.com has all the information all the schedule of events pretty well. The exhibitor list of now, everything you need to know about.

Admission and parking are free.