Collegiate Times

The annual Agricultural Sunbelt Exposition in Moultrie, Ga. featured Virginia as its spotlight state of the year.

The premier farm show, the largest show in the southeast, took place from Tuesday through Thursday this week.

Located on 1,680 acres, the expo highlighted 1,209 exhibits and drew approximately 200,000 visitors over the three days. Agricultural Exposition.

"Our mission is very simple," said Chip Blalock, executive director of the Sunbelt Agricultural Exposition. "We produce an agricultural tradeshow, where farmers can come in and see the latest technology and gather info to take back to their operations to improve their efficiency."

According to Linda Burchem, communication manager of the Va. spotlight exhibition, "Virginia Agriculture: Proud History, Prosperous Future," was coordinated by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech, the Va. Cooperative Extension, the Va. Farm Bureau Federation and the Va. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

"All sent representatives to Georgia so that they could not only showcase Virginia, but also all the hard work
that each group has been doing," Burchem said.

"We're very proud of it," said Mark McCann, director of the Va. Cooperative Extension. "What we tried to show are some of the historical aspects of Virginia and where we're going in the future."

The 93-acre site of the show has static exhibits in five buildings. The rest of the exposition is outside in other buildings or tents. Additionally, there is a 600-acre research farm adjacent to the exhibit area.

"You can not only see exhibits in the setting, you can see them working in the fields and experience the technology," Blalock said. "And consumers can see what farmers are doing to produce most economical products in the most efficient ways."

Blalock also explained that the Expo's main mission is to highlight agriculture, but it also offers some- thing for the entire family with hunting and fishing as well as cooking demonstrations.

Visitors can win a tractor, a $15,000 value set of cookware, or a GMC, Chevrolet or Toyota truck. They can
camp out in one of the 500 camping sites available in the area.

There are ATVs available and tractor-driving ranges where visitors can test-drive the new tractor driven by a
GPS system.

"It's been great," said Blalock. "We've filled motels for 60 miles. It's the Disney World of agriculture."