VALLEY CITY, N.D. -- The final weekend of the 81st annual North Dakota Winter Show should bring the most people at any one time with horse and rodeo events, said Jim Nelson, a 17-year member of the Winter Show Board of Directors.
“Our big days are the weekend and Saturday is probably the biggest day that we have out here,” Nelson said.
A snowstorm hurt attendance at the end of the first week but the weather looks promising this weekend and through closing on March 10, he said. The NDWS Rodeo and a full day of entertainment and activities of interest to all ages will bring in people, he said. “The Winter Show is massively important for Valley City,” Nelson said. “It’s one of the best things that this city has to bring people in and we really don’t have anything that compares to that as three events in one.”
Retired ranchers and farmers come early to have coffee and talk in the food vendor area, he said.
LeRoy Triebold, a retired Valley City farmer, said he lives just 7 miles away from the Winter Show and likes to come each day of the event. His father first brought him as a boy and he was 8 years old when the North Dakota Winter Show Event Center first opened in 1963.
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The event is a way to find good deals, learn new things and meet with friends, he said.
“My dad would bring me along and we would be here until 10 o’clock having conversations with people and networking with people,” Triebold said.
The vendors are happy and saying that the products are selling products, Nelson said.
Jenna Litscher, a sales agronomist for Central Plains Ag Services, said she enjoyed talking about seed, chemical fertilizer and precision agriculture. She said farmers are concerned about the bottom line and a consultant must either save them money or make them money starting the first year.
“We talk about the different tools that are out there to help them utilize their data a little bit better,” she said. “It’s a nice opportunity to just get out and visit with different growers that come through about what their needs and wants are so we can help them better.”
On Thursday there was the Pony Pull and the Draft Horse Pull events that nearly filled the 3,000-seat arena.
There were also people on hand to listen to Scott Austin, CEO of Minnesota Soybean Processors, the parent company of North Dakota Soybean Processors. He updated a crowd of local growers about the proposed Spiritwood soybean processing plant that is expected to crush 125,000 bushels per day as an average size plant, he said.
“We are continuing to move forward and we are very excited about the project,” Austin said.
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The project is progressing through its equity drive and has raised approximately $96 million of the $116 million needed to complete escrow, set the price guarantees and sign land lease and contracts to allow contractors McGough and Karges Faulconbridge Inc. to start work, he said.
“In principal, pretty much everything is set and we’re ready to go,” Austin said.
Had the Spiritwood soybean crushing plant been operational last season it would have probably beat the industry average for profitability by three times over, he said. It is a very good location and was a very quick decision to decide to locate the plant at Spiritwood over northwest Minnesota, he said.
Donovan Johnson from the North Dakota Trade Office also provided a summary of programs and services for businesses seeking to export products to international markets. He said there are great opportunities for funding to support travel costs and to protect up to 90 percent of unpaid sales through government programs, he said.
A complete schedule of all Winter Show events is available at www.northdakotawintershow.com .
