Reflecting on the first outdoor farm show

Sep 14, 2017

Jack Bonham remembers attending the first one almost 25 years ago

By Diego Flammini
News Reporter
Farms.com

2017 marks the 24^th anniversary of Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show, but there couldn’t be 24 farm shows if there wasn’t a first one.

And a select few, like 91-year-old Jack Bonham with JB Enterprises, can recall the atmosphere around the first outdoor farm show more than two decades ago.

“(The first outdoor show was in 1994) in Burford (Ont.),” he told Farms.com today. “That’s where (the late Ginty Jocius) started. It was really a good show. A lot of people showed up because they’d never been to any outdoor show before. I was quite surprised at how many people we did get (into the show).”

Bonham has attended every show since the first one and is impressed with its growth.

“(The show) has kept growing bigger and bigger,” he said. “I would say it’s at least three times the size of what it was when we first started. The new farm equipment has (also) really grown.”

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.