Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show 2025 saw satisfied customers and strong engagement from political visitors.
Show Director Rob O’Connor called the recent Woodstock show the smoothest he’s ever seen.
“When exhibitors came in with their equipment, our operators did a great job and the management of the operations team was impeccable,” O’Connor said. “That just gets everything off on the right foot.”
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According to O’Connor, exhibitors reported high engagement among the farmers in attendance.
“Some of our customers, they were hitting their targets before the end of day two, so the reports that I got back from those customers was fantastic,” he said.
“Our whole purpose is to give an opportunity for farmers to meet with those trade show exhibitors and to start doing some business when they can meet their goals before the show’s third day.”
O’Connor mentioned a few standout moments from this year’s show. One was the Innovation Awards ceremony, held the night before the show’s first day.
“It was a wonderful event. It looked beautiful. We had great weather. We moved it to a new location this year, which is the special events tent on site, and it was just north of the pond. And boy, that just had the great ambiance.”
Also of note this year were the drone demos, which O’Connor had said he was excited for prior to the show.
“Those drones were flying all day, every day, and there (were) constantly people going and learning about the new models,” he said. “That technology is moving so fast, I think it’s gonna be so beneficial in the future of agriculture.”
O’Connor also said he was also impressed by the presence of dignitaries like Ontario Minister of Agriculture, Food and Agri-Business Trevor Jones, Minister of Rural Affairs Lisa Jones and Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding.
“To have senior level politicians and their teams stay at the show for that amount of time, showed and demonstrated to me how important the show is, even for policy makers, they come and they see the equipment and they see the business that’s being done in our industry.”
“They can also talk to farmers, and they can talk to the manufacturers or the seed growers and talk about the state of the industry so that they can get ideas and a sense of what they need to do as far as political policy and keeping our province and country moving forward.”
Business representatives from the Czeck Republic, Japan, Australia and other countries also attended the show.
As for next year, O’Connor said there are some changes attendees can expect to see at COFS 2026.
“The positioning (of) the exhibitors in the livestock area, there will be some changes there. There’ll be some changes as we try to theme some of the areas of the show a little more so that when a farmer comes to walk all over across the site to see competitors, we’re going to put some of those competitors closer together.”
Attendance-wise, O’Connor said the show held steady from last year, with around 37,000 people through the gates. He said this shows “in the world of agriculture, where there’s less and less farmers every year, the strength the show has.”
