John Rhoten, in brown shirt, gesturing, sales representative for Reese Drum Mowers, discusses specifications of a double-drum mower with a customer during the first hour of Wednesday's show.

FORT?DODGE – The 2010 Farm News Ag Show was a sellout. This is the newspaper’s ninth year for the event.

The show attracts farmers who are still making crop and machinery decisions for the next planting year.

It’s also attracted a few first-time exhibiters.

John Rhoten, a sales representative for Reese Drum Mowers, said he’s been interested in attending the annual show, but since he does extensive custom-combining, he isn’t always available.

“But this year we finished in good time.”

Trevor Jensen shreds carrots in preparation for a cooking demonstration at the Kitchen Craft booth at the ag show.

Rhoten, who operates from Panora, and other agribusinesses represented said with commodity prices and land values soaring, this year has the potential for farmers wanting to upgrade equipment.

“All I’m looking for is for people to stop and look at these mowers,”?Rhoten said, “because they’ve never seen anything like this.”

Reese, which is based in New Zealand, has a drum mower design that has been unchanged for 25 years. “The drums have no gear boxes,”?Rhoten said, “only belts and bearings. “They are the only thing that wears out.”

Aside from a simple, enduring machine, the drum mower also forms windrows, saving a pass in the field.

Another first-time exhibit is Kitchen Craft, a division of Americraft, which features cooking utensils and demonstrations about eating healthy.

The booth was manned by Candis Dreschler, of Humboldt, and her son Trevor Jensen.

Dreschler said the demonstrations work well at farm shows. “Farmers are aware of their food sources, of which they take a lot of care producing. So we take it one step and how to prepare food in a more healthy way.

“And these farm gals are really good cooks.’

Donna McAnally, of Shimkat Motor Co., of Fort Dodge, was also at the show for the first time.

“Farmers need trucks,”?McAnally said, “for a combination of work and family.”

She was showing the new models of the Dodge RAM 2500 and RAM 1500.

“These trucks have been winning awards for design, especially interior design and the comfortable ride,”?McAnally said. “We wanted to bring these down and let them see and touch them.”

The Farm News Ag Show ran Wednesday and Thursday and featured speakers David Kruse (see related story on this page), plus columnist Jerry Nelson, agronomist Bob Streit, Iowa State University Extension agronomist John Holmes, and Mike Richards and Mike Robertson, ag program instructors at Iowa Central Community College.

Contact Larry Kershner at (515) 573-2141, Ext. 453 or kersh@farm-news.com.