With 2.6 million square feet of show grounds and 1,600 exhibitors, the 2011 World Ag Expo celebrated its 44th year of operation, Feb. 8-10. The event attracted people from every walk of the farming life, including Luke, ’09, middle, and Tim, ’11, far right, DeGroot, who worked at a booth called, ?I Love Farmers…They Feed My Soul.”

One of Luke’s professors, Scott Vernon, at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo started the organization a few years ago and was impressed with Luke’s agricultural knowledge and made him vice president of I Love Farmers.

The Tulare Expo featured a range of booths from dairying to farming, T-shirts to tractors, and breakfast burritos to privilege sandwiches. This year, a music pavilion was added, which featured Blake Shelton, a country star, on Feb. 8, and David Nail and Stealing Angels on Feb. 9.

“This is my 4th year attending the Expo,” Tim said. “I like it because it gives me the opportunity to see new farming equipment. I live on a dairy farm which has aways been an interest to me. This makes the Expo a cool place to hang out and check out all the newest in dairy barn equipment like milking and robotic machines.

“The robotic machines have a big arm that automatically milks the cow, freeing the farmer to do other jobs while saving the cost of 10 milkers in the pit. We don’t have one yet but are not ready to change and upgrade to this technology.”

The World Ag Expo’s main goal is to bring people from around the world together to share and educated themselves on new age products to benefit the agricultural and dairying industries.

“As I work in the “I Love Farmers” booth, I met farmers from Europe, radio stations and talked to a farmer from Brazil,” Tim said. “He was with a group and was interested in the design of our shirts. The organization is a non profit organization that helps awareness of 14-24-year-olds to help people understand where their food comes from.”

For more information on I Love Farmers…They Feed My Soul, contact Tim DeGroot.