by PAUL RAYNER

With the purpose of giving farmers some attention and learning opportunities, the third annual Farm Focus has proven the mission is still being accomplished.

Held at Boissevain Collegiate on February 23, the event again was a mix of trade show and informative seminars aimed at providing the local agricultural community with a day focusing on their concerns. According to Karen Harilstad of the Boissevain & District Chamber of Commerce, the event might be branching out to some extent.

“I felt the numbers were different this year,” Harilstad commented. “We do it for the local farmers, but I think it is growing. I think there were more people from Deloraine, for example. I think more communities were involved.”

Numbers at such a come and go event are always difficult to ascertain completely. The lunch, served by the Turtle Mountain Ag Society, drew 345 people, so it is likely there were around 400 people attending at least part of the event, which is similar to previous years.

“I’m sure some people came in the morning and the afternoon without staying for lunch. It is hard to tell, since people don’t always come through the front doors. We were very pleased with the numbers that showed up, especially with the icy roads.”

There were 60 booths in the trade show this year, which combines all types of farm related businesses, from agricultural implement dealers to financial institutions. Although some participants had multiple spots, it was still a strong showing, with about 50% of them local and around 30% new additions.

Those involved passed around evaluations to exhibitors to see the strengths and weaknesses in their opinion of the day. Harilstad said they were very positive, with questions including overall rating of the event, the favourable aspects versus unfavorable and publicity and promotion. She added the trade show filled up much more quickly than previous years, and she gave a great deal of credit to economic development officer Shirley Bell.

“Shirley Bell did a great job,” Harilstad stated. “Lots of exhibitors put her on their evaluations when they were asked about how they found out about the event.”

The other major part of the day was the seminars. As usual, a full lineup dealing with a variety of agricultural topics were put in place. The day started with Tom Henry of Small Farms Magazine discussing his own small farm experiences in Vancouver Island, and ended with the announcement of the winners of the Turtle Mountain Community Development Corporations Ag Committee’s Small Farm Challenge winners. In between were presentations on small-scale farmers in Africa, GPS, grain marketing strategies, integration of crops with energy production and other topics. Although Harilstad was too busy to attend the seminars, comments were supportive.

“The general response is that they were very interesting and that we had a good lineup this year.”

Another area of success Harilstad pointed to was the partnership with the small farm contest, Reversing the Trend, which was held the next day. She felt it might have been another good drawing card, both for exhibitors and the general public. Having the winners of the Small Farms Challenge, where participants put their small farm dreams on paper, gave the event a different feel.

“What stayed with me,” she explained, “is how some of the winners were networking, that they like to hear from people who were already established. It is always best to learn from other people’s mistakes than make your own.”

Will there be a fourth annual Farm Focus in 2008?

“That question comes up every year, whether or not we should do it every year or every two years. We get so much support from the community, which is great because when you come up with these things, you never know if it will fly, there are so many factors. At this point, we are pretty much in favour of doing it every year. If attendance were to drop off, maybe we would look at doing it every second year. But the support is so overwhelming for it.”

“This gives the Chamber an opportunity to show support for agriculture,” Harilstad explained. “It provides farmers an opportunity to have new information and exchange ideas. We do a lot of customer promotions, but when it comes to doing things for farmers, this is really it.”