1,200 exhibitors ready to greet you at 2025 World Ag Expo

The 2025 World Ag Expo has begun.

The annual event, held at the International Agri-Center in Tulare, is the largest annual outdoor agricultural exposition in the U.S., attracting more than 100,000 people each year.

Former U.S. Rep. Connie Conway is the chair of this year's event. One of her responsibilities is to help promote the show.

"This show started with just a tractor equipment show 58 years ago, and it's really grown once we moved out here to these grounds," Conway said. "It used to just be the farm show. Now it's the World Ag Expo, and it's featuring ag and technology.

"Every farmer I know farms with a laptop now, including my son and grandson who farm in Oregon," she said. "The technology part is so interesting. It's such a blend.

"Last year, we had a drone out here that was picking fruit," she said. "That kind of blew my mind. The tractors that drive themselves, all the innovations, even in the dairy barn, what's new in milking equipment is very technological. Everything's planned. Cows are always on a diet. They know exactly what's in their food, what they need, what nutrients they should get. It is agricultural science, really.

"If ag isn't exciting to you and technology is not cutting it, we have over 30 nonprofits out here that provide the food," she added. "They're food vendors so it's a real food fest, anything you can imagine."

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Megan Lausten, World Ag Expo marketing manager, shares Conway's enthusiasm.

"We have over 1,200 exhibitors, which is where we've been over the last couple years, so we're really excited about that," Lausten said. "Our pre-event ticket sales online are right where they've been over the last couple of years, so things are looking great."

She added that 70 countries will be represented at the show, either by having an exhibit booth or sending a delegation.

Cutting-edge technology, which will again be showcased in many of the booths, was a common theme among this year's "Top 10 New Products Winners" selected by the World Ag Expo.

"A lot of our top ten winners are high-tech," Lausten said. "We have a couple of our winners that are specifically using AI within their products. It's fitting and everywhere in the world right now.

"Each exhibitor incorporates it differently into their products and how they're using it," she said. "AI is really starting to be more involved and we're starting to see how it can affect agriculture through some of our top ten products."

But it's not all business at the World Ag Expo.

"Everyone loves to talk about food, so we've got great food out here," Lausten said. "Can-Am is back with a ride-and-drive, which is really fun. That's where you can actually get in and test drive the vehicle.

"People love the ride-and-drives and the livestock demonstrations," she said, adding that the cattle auction, which was popular last year, will be back this year.

Women's Conference Pavilion

New this year is the Women's Conference Pavilion.

"Over the years, we've really seen a growing interest in women involved in agriculture. This year we have a whole pavilion dedicated to different sessions and panels that will be focusing on women in ag," Lausten said. "Everyone's welcome to the tent, but it's women leaders in agriculture talking about things within their sectors of ag.

"We've gotten a lot of feedback that exhibitors and attendees have wanted to see a place dedicated to where they could hear from women in agriculture," Lausten said, adding that women in agriculture are having a bigger presence in at other shows as well.

John Deere

John Deere has a booth at this year's World Ag Expo, just as they have every year since 1981, according to Larry Sterling, John Deere show manager, who explained that the company's main goal this year is not about making sales to booth visitors.

"We're here just to show them the John Deere brand, show them our investment into this high-value crop and dairy and livestock market, and let them know that we're here to partner with them in their operations," he said. "It really has nothing to do with revenue at all for our appearance here at the show. 

"What's new this year is what our narrative is, which is 'your path to autonomy,'" he said. "It starts with something as simple as our JDLink Modem, which is our telematics, moves on to our receiver with the Starfire, and then our G5 display, which allows you to be able to operate it. Then, of course, OpCenter, which harnesses all the power of John Deere technology.

"It all comes down to bringing someone from where they are in their operation to full autonomy," he said. "That's where we're trying to take people." 

Ecorobotix

While most exhibitors were setting up their booths the day before the show opened, the Ecorobotix booth was one of the few that were ready early to greet people.

"We wanted to be prepared for Monday for the media event day, so our deadline was yesterday at 6 o'clock," said Chrissy Wozniak, the company's U.S. marketing and communications manager. "We had to be done so we started to arrive on Saturday, and we spent dawn till dusk yesterday getting everything ready. We're just putting on the finishing touches now."

The company's ARA Sprayer, which was named one of this year's "Top 10 New Products," uses a new algorithm for spraying a carrot crop, which is also applicable to other ground crops.

"We have specific crops that the machine supports," said Katerina Lee, regional crop care manager. "We're completely commercial in onions, and we're also going into beta testing with broccoli, lettuce, cauliflower, and cabbage.

"ARA is an ultra-high precision machine," Lee said. "We're able to reduce labor inputs because farmers would have to go out into the field and do manual weeding applications. With this machine, you're able to spray a weed that's 0.08 inches in size. We detect the crop at about two inches in size, which is a rather small size as well."

Ecorobotix is a Swiss-based company with a large presence in Europe.

"There are 500 sprayers that are commercially operating out there," Lee said, adding that the company is now expanding into the North American market.

The company, which has its U.S. headquarters in Pasco, Washington, had a booth at last year's event and was "actually able to sell a few machines during the show, which is rather unheard of," Lee said.

"We hope to showcase our product to customers, to show the world we are now leading a precision industry," said Aurelie Wenger, the company's event manager. "We are here to make our place, and to help people know what we do, and help them with their crops, helping them by saving manual labor."

Wenger, who travelled from Switzerland to attend her first World Ag Expo, was told about the show by her co-workers.

"They told me it was the best one of the year, so I'm looking forward to it," she said.

Thunderbird Manufacturing

Many of the exhibitors at this year's World Ag Expo are showcasing products featuring the latest technological advances, but Thunderbird Irrigation Systems is there to promote the Thunderbird Wheel Line, an irrigation system created in Idaho more than 60 years ago.

"The previous owner wanted to just keep it in that area," explained Eddie Carlos, Thunderbird Manufacturing operations manager. "There's thousands of them in southeast Idaho and Utah. Eight thousand, I've heard them say."

Art Jensen, who may be better known for inventing the Sunbeam Shavemaster, applied for a patent for the Thunderbird Wheel Line on Nov. 26, 1963. The company that produced it only recently decided that it wanted to expand sales outside of its region.

The company brought irrigation industry veteran Phil Reh out of retirement to help develop a strategic plan to expand its sales and distribution. 

"There are several manufacturers of side roll systems, but in my years of experience, I never saw one with the features that this system has," Reh said. "I said, 'You guys got to go to market,' and that coincided with their plans to grow sales. 

"What's unique about this one is that there's no motor here to make it move on this central unit, which is called a mover," he explained. "It's at the end of the system so the farmer doesn't have to walk to the middle of the field to move it. He can move it from the edge of the field.

"The second advantage is – and I have a small farm in Washington so I know what I say – that these things tend to not stay straight," he continued. "It's just normal mud and everything. This one stays very straight, more than the others. And the third advantage it has, it can go up and down hills and stay really straight. There's no other system that can do that." 

"You put sprinklers on it, and you're able to irrigate and move it as you go," Carlos said.

The World Ag Expo runs through Feb. 13 at the International Agri-Center, 4500 S. Laspina St., Tulare . Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday. Admission is $20 at the gate, or $3 off online ticket price with discount code EARLYBIRD25. For a full schedule of events, more information or to purchase ticket, visit  WorldAgExpo.org . 

This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: 2025 World Ag Expo is open for business