Business as usual for Farm Show

The Four State Farm Show has over 600 booths covering 25 acres, nearly all occupied by vendors trying to sell something.

How many people will make purchases at the show? How many will decide a week or month later that they want something they saw or test drove at the show?
Well, it all depends.

According to Dick Conway of Morton Buildings, the company does make sales at the show, but also hears later on from buyers who saw something at a show that they’ve decided they need.

“I work on this all year,” he said.

However, the nature of business at farm sales is changing, according to Stuart Rose, Harper Industries Inc. territory manager for southwest Kansas, western Oklahoma and Colorado.

The company had bale beds at the farm show, flat-bed vehicles for moving hay bales.

“Direct sales at the farm show are now something we depend upon,” Rose said. “You go back 20 years and farm shows were definitely an avenue for direct sales. Now people go on the Internet and check things out before they get here. They come to the farm show and this might be the place where they make their final decision.”

The farm shows also serve as advertising, and get the company’s agents out so they can meet and deal with potential companies.

Austin Greve, who was at the Harper Industries booth with Rose, said that he has been learning a lot from being at the show and talking with people.

“People who have had our product before will come by, and we get a lot of return customers,” he said.

Rose said that Harper Industries probably does 30 farm shows a year. He has been going to shows the past 20 years, though this is his first time at the Four  State Farm Show, and he is very impressed by it.

“As far as attendance and people who ask questions, it’s significantly greater here than other shows I’ve been to,” Rose said. “I’ve probably talked to more people Saturday morning than at the last two shows combined.”

Conway confirms the great deal of interest at the show.

“This is a big farming community, and that’s why we went to the big expense of putting up this permanent Morton building on the show grounds,” he said. “It shows what we can do.”

Rose said that his company may be looking at cutting down on the number of shows they attend.

“One thing we will not cut is the Four State Farm Show,” he said.

Of course, there are also vendors who sell products on the spot that people take with them, and that includes food. Probably the most unique product at the show is pineapple whip, sold from a trailer with a mechanical hula girl on top.

“We started selling food here 30 years ago, but it was burgers and barbecue, corn dogs and hot dogs,” said Mike Fortner, who owns the pineapple whip business with his brother Chris.

His father, Dan Fortner, now 81, invented the recipe for pineapple whip, they thought it would be a good fit for the farm show, and the rest is history.

“Dad also engineered the hula girl on top,” Fortner said. “Everybody notices it. Kids go by and wiggle their hips.”

They also sell lots and lots of pineapple whip. On Saturday alone, Fortner said, they went through about 60 gallons of whip mixture.

“We go back home to Springfield every night and make up a new batch to bring fresh the next day,” he said.

There are also pineapple whip trucks on three Springfield parking lots throughout the summer.

“This is kind of a semi-retired, seasonal job,” Fortner said. “And if, in four or five years, I’d want to retire, I hope one of my  kids will want to take it over.”