I take my hat off to all those machinery exhibitors who show their wares at the Ottawa Valley Farm Show (OVFS). Taking huge machines to Ottawa, getting it parked inside the building and then taking it home after the three-day show is a huge undertaking. And who do you see sitting up in a $750,000 combine or a $400,000 tractor? Well, school kids of course. You can see the most modern farm equipment and high tech everything under one roof at the 150,000 square-ft. EY Centre on Uplands Drive adjacent to Ottawa International Airport
It’s an annual event in March for thousands of farm folk to visit the farm show. I spoke with a farmer from the London area who told me the show was much bigger and better than the London Farm Show. He said that show had machinery in two smaller buildings. This was great under one roof, he said.
The OVFS is the place to talk to representatives from seed and chemical companies, financial institutions, and all the major machinery companies are there. I was intrigued at a very complex vertical tillage machine. Curious about the price, I was told it was around the $150,000 and it would take a 300 horsepower tractor to pull it.
The OVFS is Ontario’s longest running agricultural trade show. From the beginning, it has been organized by farmers for farmers on a non-profit basis. The OVFS traces those humble beginnings back to 1927, to the Town of Renfrew.
It was there that the newly formed Ottawa Valley Seed Growers Association sponsored its first local seed fair at Renfrew Collegiate. The primary objective was consistent with today’s main purpose: to assist in producing, grading, selling and distributing high class and registered seed.
In the early days, the Seed Fair rotated each year from community to community throughout eastern Ontario and west Quebec. Much later, after it had grown too big for rural venues, what became the Ottawa Valley Farm Show found a permanent, central home at Ottawa’s Lansdowne Park where it remained until 2011.
When the show settled in at Lansdowne, a major equipment manufacturer spotting a good opportunity set up a display of new machinery. The idea caught on, eventually transforming the annual event into the biggest seed and machinery show east of Toronto.
The OVFS Championship Seed, Feed and Forage Show is an annual event held at OVFS and is a very classy event.
The show is designated the championship show for eastern Ontario and western Quebec. To qualify for entry, the exhibits must be approved and entered by the local county seed show, or the Ottawa Valley Seed, Feed and Forage Championship Show Committee.
Competition is open to those in the following counties: Argenteuil, Carleton, Dundas, Frontenac, Gatineau, Glengarry, Grenville, Hastings, Labelle, Lachute, Lanark, Leeds, Lennox & Addington, Papineau, Pontiac, Prescott, Prince Edward, Renfrew, Russell & Stormont.
All exhibits must have been exhibited at a county or district seed show in 2018. If the county or district does not have a seed show, the exhibits must be approved and entered by the local soil and crop improvement association and only qualifying entries are forwarded to the championship show in Ottawa.
I have been an exhibitor at the show since the early 1970s, entering in the hay classes. It’s a stiff competition and a prodigious challenge.
