Farm Show owner confident ahead of 2024 event

The Chatham-Kent Farm Show returns Jan. 30-31 at the John D. Bradley Centre in Chatham. According to show owner Courtney Brochu, the event’s exhibitor slots are sold out.

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Why it matters: The Chatham-Kent Farm Show aims to provide a “one-stop show” for farmers to get a head start on the growing season.

The show will feature 100 exhibitors, an increase over 2023, which was the first year it returned in-person after the pandemic.

“Our first year back, I think we had like 97 or 95 exhibitors. Now we have the full 100 exhibitors,” Brochu said. They include Devolder Farms, Discovery Farm, Maizex Seeds and several drone companies.

“It’s like one big family reunion,” she said. “The show honestly fills my heart.”

The speaker series will feature Farms.com risk management speaker Moe Agostino and Terranova UAV co-founder Andres Hurtado, as well as Jordan Wallace of GPS Ontario. Maizex will have two speakers, Adam Parker and Henry Prinzen.

This will be Brochu’s second year of organizing the show after buying it from previous owner Stuart Galloway.

“When Stu used to own it, he was sold out all the time,” Brochu said. “Then the pandemic came through and I couldn’t run the show for the two years that I owned it.

“My husband and I were so excited that we were the owners of the show. Everything was in place. He had everything organized. When COVID hit, it was kind of like a bomb was dropped.”

Despite the uncertainty of those years, the CK Farm Show community stuck together, she added.

“It was very stressful. But honestly, our exhibitors were … I couldn’t thank them enough for the support. They stayed with me, they stuck with us. They didn’t ask for refunds. They kept their money with me. They trusted me.”

When the show returned to an in-person event last year, pandemic fallout was not the only obstacle to overcome.

“We got hit with the biggest snowstorm of the year our first day, which added more stress.”

Despite this, Brochu said she had faith in the attendees.

“The way I looked at it is, (they’re) farmers, they drive through the snow.”

Last year’s challenges made her more confident.

“You can throw anything at me and I’m gonna roll with the punches, that’s for sure.”

Brochu said she still hopes to introduce more educational opportunities for the non-farming public.

“My goal is to keep having the show grow and obviously to have change every once in a while.

“I always hope that people that are not in the farming industry have some type of interest or even are intrigued (by) the whole agricultural world. I think it’s something that everybody should know.

“It’s what keeps us living, if you really think about it, farmers feed us, right?”

Brochu said community support and exhibitor participation are crucial.

“We are so happy, so grateful for everybody’s support. Like, I really want that out there,” she said. “From our admissions, from people coming to walk the show, we couldn’t be more grateful for the support.”