The Mood From Madison? In A Holding Pattern

Last week, I had the chance to attend the annual Wisconsin AgriBusiness Classic show in Madison, WI. It’s been a few years since I’ve made this particular trek, but I was pleased to see that one of the only state association-sponsored winter trades shows that features both big equipment and educational seminars was still going strong. In fact, according to Tom Bressner, Executive Director for the Wisconsin Agri-Business Association, the 2017 Classic featured 108 exhibitors, down only slightly from the 116 that took part in the 2016 show. And when you consider the number of mergers that have taken place the past 12 months in the marketplace, meaning two companies were now sharing one booth (such as A.J. Sackett and Waconia, now Sackett-Waconia, and WinField Solutions and United Suppliers, now WinField United), the show lost virtually no exhibitors over the past year.

Not surprisingly, the No. 1 question people at the Classic kept asking me was “how do you think 2017 will play out for agriculture?” This is what I spent the better part of the show trying to find out.

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Overall, the mood was somewhat mixed. Compared with the mood I found at last year’s Agricultural Retailers Association meeting, people in Madison were more positive that 2017 would be a flat season for agriculture – nothing major predicted to move the financial needle significantly up or down.

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There was one prevailing phrase I kept hearing from folks, however, summed up as essentially “wait until next year.” Many of the equipment manufacturers at the show talked about all the plans their companies have in store for new product launches. However, the majority of these won’t appear until the summer/fall trade shows roll around, being formally introduced for the 2018 season.

This week, I will be attending another winter meeting, the annual Illinois Fertilizer & Chemical Association meeting in Peoria, IL. It will be interesting to find out if the mood among agricultural suppliers here matches what I found in Wisconsin.

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