Along with beautiful weather, Tuesday, February 24th and Wednesday, February 25th brought hundreds of people to the annual New Mexico Ag Expo, held in Portales, New Mexico 150. Vendors from around the United States, tailored primarily to the agriculture industry, had booths set up in four buildings, making this year’s Expo one of the largest.
The newest building, the Dairy Pavilion, which held 12 vendors, was a big hit, drawing over 300 people each day. The pavilion, guarded by Luella, the United Dairy Women large metal cow, was central to the dairy community and housed multiple dairy-related seminars and a coffee shop for the vendors and their customers. Pencils, mugs, candy, and of course milk and cheese steadily exited the building as people filtered through.
Dr. Tom Fuhrmann met with a group of about 35 dairy producers and industry personnel in a Dairy Management Workshop. He addressed many of the issues and concerns that producers have about facility management, especially in terms of this economic downturn.
John Wilson, DFA Corporate Vice President of Marketing, addressed a group of about 100 producers about the current dairy market. His update included charts and graphs depicting the dairy market over several years, as well as the current trends internationally, as well as nationally. Producers were able to ask questions, again, mostly related to the current milk prices and the economic downturn. PD
