World Ag Expo 2023

Ethan Weller, Reporter|February 27, 2023

By the time we arrived around nine, we were led to and parked at gate 12. There were 20 gates total across the whole exhibit.

The Ag Expo features 33 Food Courts, 6 large indoor exhibits, a museum, and many unique outdoor booths spanning from A Street to U Street horizontally and five different streets vertically (North Street, North Greenbelt, Median Street, South Greenbelt, and finally South Street).
The first big exhibit seen after entering through gate 12 was the indoor dairy exhibit called the “Farm Credit Dairy Center” featuring many, many booths all on different niches and specific elements of dairy production. I was with a small group of 4 with 3 other Ag students from Arroyo Grande High School. In total 15 students decided to come to the World Ag Expo from Arroyo Grande Highschool. We had three administrators who gave all of us students a lot of leniency on where we were allowed to go. We were allowed to explore to our heart’s content.
One of the booths in the Indoor Dairy Exhibit featured and gave out chocolate products. Interestingly, this chocolate was made from goat milk. Most of the booths are cow specific, so this particular booth stood out for several reasons. The booth gave out quite a portion of chocolate and it was quite delicious to boot. The organization is called the American Dairy Goat Association (since 1904).
Several booths were all various companies showing off their sustainability efforts and technologies. There was a lot of competition to stand out from the crowd.
This booth is similar in many ways to the Eno Scientific booth. The Phytech logo even closely resembles that of the Eno Scientific booth that was propped up only a couple of booths away.
Many colleges both in and out of state were present at this Ag Expo. UC Davis attempted to stand out by featuring a cornhole game where people visiting their booth could win UC Davis-themed prizes.
I stumbled into a presentation on how to make and prepare seafood. Truly, this perplexing moment for me was a testament to how many numerous things there were to see at the Ag Expo, a little bit of everything.
I am a big fan of this booth. Many of the booths have to do with the quality of life changes for the farmer and their livestock. Usually, they go hand and hand. When the livestock is happy, the farmer is happy. This fan serves to make sure the livestock do not die from heat stroke because apparently, that is a decently common problem in places outside California.
This image is of the Ag Expo from a trailer that featured an elevated surface with couches and chairs for relaxation purposes. It was one of the many presentations on trailer accessories.
There were multiple tractors of varying sizes moving through the streets of the Ag Expo for the 7 hours the World Ag Expo went on with wagons hanging behind them carrying people from place to place so they could see all the many booths and presentations without the hassle of walking or to just rest their legs for a little while.
These dogs are a part of the District Attorney of Fresno County booth and are Service Dogs who “support adults and children who have been the victim of, or witnessed/been exposed to, a traumatic crime. They accompany victims and witnesses through the judicial process by providing comfort and support during difficult and stressful court proceedings,” according to their flier. The two dogs are Goldendoodles named North & Nikko and are both 4 years old with 2 years of training, learning over 60 commands over the course of their training. The booth also gives out Junior Deputy and Junior Investigator stickers for kids.
This booth features a replica of an attempt at the world’s largest daikon. Unfortunately, it did not get the world record but the booth is currently underway to give it another shot. The daikon is a staple Japanese vegetable, according to the booth.
Ace! The dog! Just chillin’. The booth Ace was resting at was for rat extermination but clearly, there is a more pressing subject at hand. Ace is an Australian Shepherd and is simply just the booth runner’s dog who was whining when he went to attend the Ag Expo this particular day and the booth runner decided that it was okay for Ace to tag along. The extermination mechanism was quite rudimentary, it was an engine with tubes attached to it that took the exhaust, and the tubes are meant to be placed down various rodent holes until the rodents die. Supposedly it is both cheap and effective!
I have actually no idea what this is but it was fun to look at and watch. Many kids who were here on a field trip stopped to look at the many booths with loud moving mechanisms. This one was in a constant state of pumping out and in the concoction in the tank in the image.
Old timey car. I have no idea why it was there but it looked pretty important. There were many different vehicles featured at the Ag Expo from modern tractors to historic tractors to trucks, semis, and even this old car.
There were a TON of tractor-type things. I took a picture of this one because it was absolutely massive. However, there were so many that were huge that I think this one wasn’t even the biggest one.
They let you get in some of them, heck yeah. Many families attended the Ag Expo and the children (and me) found their entertainment through getting to see what it was like to be in these giant machines. There were also some adults getting in some of the vehicles to see if it would be worth the purchase.
Some were red, some were blue, some were yellow, and some were green. All the different colors of vehicles were separated from one another. The vehicle on the far left was particularly eye-catching, a giant menacing machine that was posing for my photo, thanks giant tractor.
vroom, vroom. 
This one has a massive chainsaw on it. Well, more accurately a giant array of sawblades, which might actually be cooler than a chainsaw. This has got to be a personal highlight of the World Ag Expo.
This was a very visually pleasing booth on the outskirts of the Ag Expo, tucked away into some random corner outside the museum. It was about bee conservation, and the cherry blossom tree was fun to look at. There were a buncha bees all over it. Maybe a safety hazard, I dunno.
Old tractor thing in the museum. “This is a 1948 HD 10 Allis Chalmers. It was purchased new by Clifford Souza and his father. Cliff spent the next 30 years working this tractor on a large lettuce ranch in Santa Maria. This tractor was in the Souza family for over 55 years. Cliff and Virginia Souza donated the HD 10 to the Heritage Museum. John Stewart restored this tractor with the help of Tom Stasio. This tractor has a lot of California history.” The information guide said.
Also an old tractor in the museum. “This tractor was sold new to Howard Fisher in 1957 by Weisenberger’s Farm Supply in Porterville, CA for $2907.00. It was built in Coventry, England by the Harry Ferguson Co. but has the United States Ferguson colors. It has a 35 HP Perkins Diesel engine, with an 8-speed transmission and live hydraulics, PTO. It contained the famous ‘Ferguson System.’ Restoration was finished in 1998 by Neil Jaentsch Springville, CA.,” the information guide said. There was a spelling mistake in this guide, it said, “with and 8-speed transmission”.
Skulls are the first thing you see when entering the “AgVentures!” exhibit for kids in the museum. Not actually anything wrong with that, I just like to exaggerate. There were owl skulls, coyote skulls, and tracks of various animals like deer. There were also accompanying pictures.
If there is one thing I know kids adore, it’s rocks. I am sure this collection had all of the kids’ attention. Some of the rocks in this image are as follows, obsidian, wernerite yellow, soapstone, petrified wood, agate, azurite, rhodonite, selenite, and “lava with tube”.
More rocks. These rocks are quartz crystal, geodes, talc, pumice, wernerite yellow (again for some reason), chalcedony rose, common copal, and petroleum. Yes, petroleum.
This thing is supposed to teach kids how milking cows works. I couldn’t figure it out. I hope it was broken because otherwise, I am not smarter than a 6th grader. According to this station, “After a cow gives birth to a calf, she makes milk for about 9 months. During that time, she’s milked two or three times a day in a milking parlor. The dairyman first cleans her udder, and then attaches a machine that gently pumps the milk.” additionally, “An average California cow produces about eight gallons a day. Can you imagine carrying that much milk?” I would imagine carrying around eight gallons of milk would be difficult but I also do not weigh 1,500 pounds. There is also a part of the station that features a hole for kids to feel what a milking machine feels like on a cow, they are supposed to stick their finger in.

 

This is just straight-up neat. I am not even a car guy but this is definitely a marvel. Also not a car, a semi, but I’m also not a semi guy either unless we’re talking about Optimus Prime.
This is a tractor with like 20 saw blades on it. Of course I was gonna take a picture of it who do you think I am? 
These utility poles were put up here specifically to be looked at. Usually, they remain in the background of our lives so it is cool to give them some credit. Well, technically the presentation is on the workers, not the electric posts but I personally like the utility poles more.
This cow’s dump truck cannot be contained! This cow was dressed up and taken out of her pen for children to be able to pet her. She was kind and had no problem having people come right up to her to say hi.
The glass pane between us and the ice cream workers is probably there to guarantee that they won’t eat it all while on the job. In all seriousness, it was really cool to see the actual process of how the ice cream was made at the Rosa milk & ice cream shop outside the Ag Expo.
Since everyone is dying to know my entirely objective and correct opinion on ice cream I nabbed a couple of samplers to rate them on a scale of 1 to 10. Cookie Dough – 8/10, Orange Creme – 7/10, Mint Chip – 5/10, Cookies & Creme – 6/10.