Expo Field Day drive-through could become permanent fixture
File Photo: Alan Mauldin
By Alan Mauldin
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MOULTRIE — In a real-life episode of necessity birthing invention, a Moultrie farm show discovered Thursday that upending 42 years of tradition could be the future for its summer Field Day event.
Faced with concerns over meeting safety guidelines related to the novel coronavirus, the Sunbelt Agricultural Exposition dispensed with packed tractor-drawn trams and let visitors drive themselves.
“With the pandemic, we had to think outside the box to stay within the protocols,” Expo Executive Director Chip Blalock said of the 43rd annual Field Day, held Thursday. “We wanted to preserve the in-person feel of Field Day. We knew we couldn’t do that on the trams.
“When we first started thinking about it, we were thinking it would be like the Christmas lights at Callaway Gardens.”
Drivers also were able to access a video feed that is available online, a new feature that came about as a result of changing the format, as they drove through the research and demonstration farm operated at the site of the annual October farm show.
“You can play videos while staying in your truck, safe and sound, without coming in contact with other people,” Blalock said. “It’s like everybody knows how to do a Zoom meeting now; we know how to do a drive-through Field Day.”
The videos will remain online so those who were unable to make it on Thursday can take the tour virtually on a phone or computer. The video presentation is available at sunbeltexpo.com/fd.
Driving the route in a car offered advantages other than remaining in the interior air conditioning. Visitors were able to go at their own pace and take time to pull over and talk to company representatives and University of Georgia researchers at various locations.
The tour offered 33 stops at stations where the representatives were available to discuss the corn, cotton, peanut and other crops planted throughout the 600-acre farm.
“People stop and see what they want to see,” said Heath Herndon, a precision information specialist for Helena Agri-Enterprises. “It’s definitely more comfortable and it seems like it’s fast.”
At past Field Days, about 50 visitors were in the trams for a three-hour ride around the farm, stopping at each station to hear remarks from representatives. This year they got to choose stations based on interest and spend as much time at those they found most interesting.
“What I like about it is all the videos,” said Brandon Phillips of Bayer Crop Science, who was at a station featuring the company’s new soybean variety. “Now you can research. You can go back and look at the video.
“I think they’ll move forward with this method going forward.”
Blalock did not have attendance figures immediately but said the numbers looked to be about on par with previous Field Day tours.
“It’s exceeded our expectations,” he said. “It’s almost unanimous with the exhibitors that they like this way better. The biggest thing is that people that couldn’t come are going to be watching the videos for a week or two.”
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