Farm Progress and Nebraska Farmer are excited to welcome you to the 2023 Husker Harvest Days. After four and a half decades, this show has become a family tradition for generations of farmers.

It is common for fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, grandfathers and grandmothers — both the young and the young at heart — to attend the show together. Farm families share the experience with the next generation of producers, even the little ones in the family.

My HHD history

I attended HHD with my father, and later with my wife, for many years before I started working for Farm Progress and Nebraska Farmer.

My father loved engaging with exhibitors and seeing the latest technologies demonstrated in the field. He could then relate back to me about what technology looked like when he was my age and how things have improved.

I also looked for new technologies, livestock demonstrations and manufacturers who were unveiling the latest products. But mostly, I attended the show to learn how to be a more efficient producer, and I enjoyed sharing that experience with my father.

Best of irrigation

If you look back at the original flyers for that first show, Husker Harvest Days was touted as the “World’s Fair of Irrigated Agriculture.” It is even more so today.

All major center pivot manufacturers are headquartered in Nebraska and have prominent displays of their latest products. On display are irrigation technologies, subsurface drip, service and maintenance, sprinkler packages, wheels and tires, pipe, power sources and every component imaginable, including water management, soil moisture sensors and conservation-related tech. If you’re interested in irrigation, no matter where you are operating, HHD is for you.

Along with demonstrations on corn harvest and handling, drying, tillage, and haying, you won’t want to miss Farm Next, Nebraska Industry Spotlight or Nebraska Farmer Hour on stage at the Husker Harvest Days Hospitality Tent. There you will hear discussions about ag startups, agribusinesses and new products.

Livestock remains king

HHD is also unique because of popular side-by-side cattle chute and handling demonstrations each day, along with extensive beef programming. Producers won’t want to miss stock dog training demonstrations or horse gentling workshops.

Beef is our No. 1 industry in this part of the country, and that is why beef and other livestock products, breed associations and educational opportunities are so prevalent at the show. The business is part of our lives and our livelihoods.

At the show, you not only can kick the tires on the latest innovations for tractors, harvesters and implements, but also get to speak with the true innovators, inventors and manufacturers of the latest tech in the livestock industry, as well as related equipment that make raising livestock more profitable and safer.

Planning for this year’s show started during last year’s show. It takes a big crew to make it all happen — the Farm Progress show team, Agricultural Institute of Nebraska in Grand Island, countless volunteers and workers, awesome exhibitors and ag professionals.

But HHD wouldn’t be the show that it is without those generations of producers returning year after year to reflect on where agriculture has been and to look forward to where the industry is going next.