The number sparked some parking challenges, but officials plan to correct issues in time for next year’s show, scheduled for Feb. 4-5, 2015 at the Stratford Rotary Complex in Stratford, Ontario.
“We plan to fix the parking capacity issue immediately and publically announce the full 2015 parking plan in the next 30 days,” says Marketing Manager Donna Powell. “By gaining access to the entire Stratford Fairgrounds of old and working with the adjacent land developer, our parking capacity is slated to grow from 20 acres to 60 acres of parking for 2015. We will now guarantee onsite/adjacent parking to our attending dairy families or your admission will be free, that’s our guaranteed commitment to you for CDX 2015.”
Even with parking hurdles to overcome, exhibitors reported positive improvements to move-in logistics, better quality food and smaller food lines, high volume of quality sales leads and less crowded alleys due to nearly doubling the tradeshow footprint.
Other stats from the expo: 73 percent of attending producers reported milking between 50 and 250 cows, and 77 percent reported cropping 250-2,500 acres; 66 percent of attending producers milk out of a free-stall barn; 42 percent of producers said they are considering a milking robot, with 19 percent reporting to already having one or more milking robots in operation; 21 percent of attendees traveled more than 150km, and 16 percent came from out of province or out of country.
CDX creates a significant fundraising platform for groups such as the Stratford Agricultural Society, Stratford Minor Hockey, 4-H dairy youth clubs, Junior Farmers and local church groups. The 350-foot BriteSpan Cow Coliseum will be staying up for CDX 2015, so further fundraising opportunities for these groups and others may be possible throughout the year.
“Our ultimate thank you to the dairy industry for the resounding support can be seen in the God Made a Dairy Farmer video we produced and launched at CDX 2014,” said Underhill. “The video received more than 5,000 views in just two-days and for that we are proud.”
For details about next year’s show, contact Marketing Manager Donna Powell by email or at (226) 381-0282, ext. 4. PD
—From Canadian Dairy Expo news release
