Rising grain markets and key technology partnerships are generating renewed optimism among producers at this year's Farm Progress Show happening this week at Boone, Iowa. On full display are equipment innovations focused heavily on maximizing field capacity while addressing input energy requirements, offering a practical response to ongoing cost pressures across North American agriculture.
RealAgriculture founder Shaun Haney and field editor Bern Tobin hit the grounds early on Tuesday to cover as much as possible in the first full day of the show, bringing it all together in this wrap up.
Haney says he sees how manufacturers are increasingly prioritizing efficiency across all equipment classes. "It's about capacity, ease of maintenance, and also being concerned about what power does it take to make this operation happen at a time where we ask the question lots when we're at machinery shows like this, how big is too big?" he says. Highlighting a high-capacity auger requiring only a 40-horsepower tractor suggests that direct feedback from producers during major shows allows engineers to accelerate practical innovation, Haney says.
The discussion also touches on broader commercial developments, including Bourgault Industries' distribution agreement with CNH to expand its Western Canadian seeding technology across U.S. and global markets. Paired with strengthening commodity pricing for corn, soybeans, and wheat, the technological advancements signal potential stabilization after a prolonged period of cautious capital expenditure.
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Read more » Berner Tobin here at Farm Progress Show, Boone, Iowa, catching up with Shaun Haney. Hey, isn't this your first trip? First time?
Yes, first time ever, Bern. Uh, this is the last of all the major North American farm shows. This is the last one I had to cheque off. So we are— it was unbelievable. It's great. I had a great time. Uh, it was hot. Uh, I cannot wait to get out of this shirt, and the shirt cannot wait to get off me. But it's been really fantastic. Pretty good crowds today. There was a bit of a slight breeze. Lots of innovation, lots of farmers here, and lots to showcase on RealAgriculture.com and our YouTube channel going forward.
You bet. Typically 150,000 people over 3 days.
That's crazy.
300 exhibitors. Here we're in Boone this year. Next year, back to Decatur. They do the back and the forth. You'll have to get to Decatur.
I will have to do that, yes.
Talk about the people you talked to today. You saw the Ag Secretary.
That we did, yes.
Okay.
USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins was here. She gave a public address. She also did a media event. Nothing really too new. She did mention that she's going to be talking to the President later this week about potentially mandatory country of origin labelling. Very sensitive subject in Canada and Mexico. Should not be any sort of a surprise to anybody. I think the groundwork's been happening and this has been in motion for quite some time. Of course, we've got the trade spat, trade war, however you want to put it, going on, the tit-for-tat back and forth between Canada and the US. So yeah, she talked about how they have signed 20 new trade deals in 16 months and things like that. She got some round of applause and a lot of talk about USDA surveying. They're trying to improve that, trying to make those crop reports a little bit more accurate. Less farmers have been filling them out and there's been concerns that lack of farmer data is creating maybe not as accurate results as they would like to have. So they've been— a huge issue they've been working on for a while through this administration. Kip Tomm's been heavily involved. Trying to bring technology and data more into that survey report.
While you were tracking the Ag Secretary, I was wandering around the show. I arrived at 6 AM this morning for breakfast. It was dark. I almost ran over a horse this morning.
You are on Eastern time. The parking attendants are on horseback. It is a little bit to get used to.
I saw the whites of some eyes this morning, and I managed to avoid them. But hey, the day started with AGCO, big corporate event unveiling some Some Fendt planters, some Fendt tractors, a new planter from Massey. So a lot of iron there this morning. And, you know, I've been all over the place today. And then I went on down to talk to Bourgault Industries.
They had a big announcement.
A big deal with CNH. Basically, you know, their seeding equipment, their seeding technology is going to be distributed through that global company. they're going to see some co-branded Case and New Holland equipment, plus they're also going to sort of, you know, manage to be as robust as they always have with their own brand.
Yeah, you know, in Western Canada, Bourgault is really one of the leaders when it comes to seeding equipment, and they've been really working hard to bring that technology into the US, heavily focused in Colorado and Kansas and other states in the Northern Plains and the PNW. You know, Colin and the team at Bourgault have a lot of reasons to be excited about this collaboration, this partnership. Having access to the CNH distribution, it is a huge announcement.
It's pretty amazing. Now you have done some work here with AGI today, tell me about that.
Yeah, Wednesday's RealAg Radio show on Rural Radio 143 is from the AGI booth. We did an on-location Ag in Motion this past year in Saskatoon as well. It was really great, it was a lot of fun. A lot of times when we do on-locations, we talk to salespeople or product managers. Today with AGI, we really focused on the people that are in engineering, in product development, talking about, you know, when there is a new auger coming to the market, and they do have a new one that is very exciting, high capacity, you only need to have a 40-horsepower tractor in front of it. It's super interesting to talk to the engineers and the importance of a show like this because the engineer gets, you know, away from their desk and gets to talk directly with dealers and farmers. And AGI is big on that feedback loop and really trying to speed up the process of innovation by doing that. It was a lot of fun, it was great. And really, one of my favourite people to do interviews with is one of the R&D people at AGI, is Woody Woodcock. First of all, great name, but second of all, great personality. He's a lot of fun, and he's on— he's gonna be— that's Wednesday's episode of RealAg Radio, so cheque that out.
Hey, I ended up the day at the Agronomy Zone, new Agronomy Zone. Typically, you know, it's pretty much just showcase here, but they've opened up an agronomy section. So Koch AgriServices is back there. We also ran into Nutrien. An opportunity for them to actually grow some crops like we've seen on a lot of other farm shows right within the grounds. So we're going to have a couple reports. It's really neat to see that element come to the show.
Yeah, you know, it's really kind of fascinating because some of the data shows it in the Purdue Ag Barometer. We see the same thing in Canada with our Canadian Farmer Sentiment Index. There's more optimism in the farming community. We've seen that corn and bean price come up, wheat has as well, and that's created a little bit more optimism right now in the beginning of September than we had back in April. And you can kind of feel it here talking to farmers. It's not like lush with cash and everything's, you know, the good old days and some sort of golden age, but there is a little bit more optimism right now based on where these markets have— how they've accelerated upwards.
Heard a lot about $6 and even $7 corn.
Oh, there's people talking about it's better than $2 corn. Maybe the livestock side not as excited about that, but for sure from a corn and bean perspective, I think there's a little bit more lift in some of the spirits here right now, especially if you haven't booked a lot of '26 crop.
Yeah, well, I'm back tomorrow. I've got John Deere, I've got Case, I've got New Holland.
You're hitting all the big ones.
I'm hitting all the big ones, and then I'm hitting the road. Got to get a plane out of here. What about you?
I am out tomorrow morning. I was here for one day. It was a one-day shot, Burn, and it was exciting though. It was honestly a really great show. It's huge. I think I put on about 17,000 or 18,000 steps. I didn't even cover the whole thing. You know, it is good to be out in the heat, and I think there is something about an outdoor show that, you know, you're a little bit more connected to what some of the experiences are of growers, and you're in the sunshine, so how can you go wrong?
Yeah, we're doing a little bit of sweating, and hey, great to run past you. We go to a lot of places, but quite often we don't—
Rarely, we never cross. Yeah, but it's, you know, the media tent's fantastic, number one, because there is food there, but also there is air conditioning. Yeah, you can't, you can't go wrong with air conditioning when the humidex is at 105 degrees.
I saw 33 today.
It's hot. It is, it's, it is something. But you know what, it was a great show, and I'm looking forward to seeing some of the reports and some of the innovations. You know, we've kind of been through a bit of a cycle here where There hasn't been a tonne of stuff because the market's been down, right? That's no secret. That impacts farmers. If farmers aren't spending money, it's hard for companies to roll out that new stuff. I kind of get the sense a little bit that maybe that is— we're leaving that window. We heard the John Deere announcement a couple weeks ago in their quarterly earnings call where they talked about how I think we've hit kind of the bottom of the cycle. That's encouraging, especially when we're talking about innovations around productivity and efficiency. Here's the interesting thing about when I was at AGI today, is that it's about capacity, ease of maintenance, and also being concerned about what power does it take to make this operation happen at a time where we ask the question lots when we're at machinery shows like this, how big is too big?
Yeah.
Right? And the power required to pull a 100-foot seeder or an 80-foot planter and things like that. I think some of the companies and some of their innovation are really being a little bit, maybe a little bit more conscious and trying to realise that they have to serve the entire market, not just the largest farmers, but making sure those innovations are through all the different sizes of products that they have. So that's something I kind of observed today.
Well, stay tuned, Real Agriculture, lots of reports. Cheque out the radio station. We got to get out of here before they kick us out.
Yeah, the show's over. We got to get out of here. I think there is cold beer calling our name.
You got it. We're gone. See you soon.
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