The busy time of year for anyone in the Ag supply business
normally runs from March through October. As you can see, it is basically
planning through harvest. So with two-thirds of the year behind us, what do we
do for the final one-third?
November through February is meeting and education time for
us. In November we attend the Pacific Northwest Vegetable Association (PNVA)
meeting. This day and a half conference packs a lot of information into a short
amount of time.
Mid December gives us the Far West Agribusiness Association Winter
Conference (FWAA). This organization covers the Pacific Northwest region, OR,
WA, and Idaho. This year’s meeting is in Boise, Idaho, so we need to allow some
travel time. The FWAA presents material that covers various cropping structures
but also some political and business information that is needed in today’s Ag
market.
The third and fourth weeks of the New Year will be busy with
two important meetings to attend. The third week will find us in Houston,
Texas, attending an international meeting of one of the companies we work with.
Attendees from all over the world explain product trials that worked and those
that didn’t work. One thing is certain; we always learn something while we are
there.
The fourth week of January is the Washington/Oregon Potato
Conference. For many years the two states had separate meetings until they put
their similarities together for the sake of efficiency. It is very well
organized and the meetings are very informative.
So as you can see, when the physical work is done for us,
the learning continues. We do spend a lot of money and time away from our
families to keep ourselves up to speed. It is what we do for our Ag industry
and we do it gladly.
