The Farm Progress Show is just weeks away in Boone, Iowa, September 1-3. Matt Jungmann, the national events director for Farm Progress, said this year’s show will be here before you know it.
“It is a convening of the industry, so trying to find the exhibit field is one thing, and all the commercial exhibits, but then all of the additional things that are happening around the show, you would know, like a NAMA meeting, and some politicking things that are happening at the show, and finding all the right places to have all these meetings and putting all those puzzle pieces in place is exactly what we’re doing right now. July 4 is kind of the unofficial end of good idea season. Now we go to work. We’ve had all the good ideas, and we’ve got a ton of new stuff at the 2026 Farm Progress Show, but now we go to work on implementing everything.”
It’s a chance to see the “latest and greatest” in agriculture.
“We’ve added a lot of new things this year, and probably the one that we’re most excited about, that’s getting the most excitement amongst the exhibitor base, is called the Agronomy Zone. For almost 75 years, we’ve done a great job of allowing companies that make combines and tractors and tillage tools and those kind of things to demonstrate, and we’ve never done a really good job of allowing the input suppliers to demonstrate, meaning the seed and crop protection and fertility and the new biologicals and allow them to have crops growing on the ground, so we’ve fixed that for this year. We’ve got over a dozen companies, plus a cover crop plot, plus a big BASF exhibit with growing crops there. We’ve hired a local agronomist, and he is doing the protocols according to what the companies wanted to have. Their exhibits were laid out in April, so that Dr. Dan could plant everything and start caring for it, and it’s pretty cool to see that.”
Attendees also get a chance to see the newest in technological innovations, including drone advancements.
“It’s the thing that sets the show apart. It’s the reason that we have the show in Boone County, Iowa, and Macon County, Illinois, and Husker Harvest Days in Hall County, Nebraska, so that we can actually grow that crop and have it ready to go right before harvest, and folks can get a look at those machines running. You mentioned the drones. We’re going to have everything that folks are familiar with, harvesting and tillage and all those things, but then we’ve added the Drone Zone, which is a clear-sided tent, so folks can get as up and close and personal with drones as the FAA will allow us to make happen.”
There are also advancements coming in precision agriculture.
“The precision demonstrations, autonomous things, and there’s a new thing that’s going to be out there this year that’s not been seen before, kind of a docking system, so lots of cool things happening out there in those demonstrations, and it’s the products that get unveiled at the show, and there are a lot of product unveilings that are coming. I can’t talk about any of them right now, but I’m aware of several of them that are going to be new, and you know, they’ve got the bright and shiny one that sits on their exhibit lot, and then we’ve got the one that we take out and get dirty and dusty out there in the field, so a good opportunity to experience all that.”