When you visit the Farm Progress Show, you see a well-oiled machine, with exhibitors greeting you on the exhibit field and with companies demonstrating equipment in the field. How does all this go off without a hitch?

A veteran team with specific responsibilities works with volunteers, company representatives, farm owners, community officials and visitors to pull it all together.

Matt Jungmann is national events director for Farm Progress. He has other duties during the year, including overseeing Husker Harvest Days and the Farm Futures Business Summit.

Show crew

Here is a closer look at the people behind the scenes of the Farm Progress Show:

Rick Wild. Wild is the on-site Farm Progress Show manager. He lays out lots for the show, and works with vendors and host farmers. Basically, he builds a 99-acre city each year. He’s also involved in field demos.

“Either in Boone, Iowa, or Decatur, Ill., I begin living in my camper on-site around the third week of July and continue through the second week of September,” he says.

Overall, since 2015, he has devoted four to six months each year to the show.

Wild lives with his wife, Christine, in Arnold, Mo. They have two children, Megan and Collin, and a granddaughter, Aria. He operates Fusion-Worx, his own business in St. Louis, fabricating trade show exhibits for many industries worldwide.

David Brix. Brix is a host farmer and assists Rick Wild. His duties include managing and handling parking lots year-round, organizing parking for vendors and equipment, planting crops for the show, managing trucking of crops away from field demos, and assisting with tiling demos. He assists Wild with daily field operations prior to and during the shows, and assists vendors who display equipment.

Away from the show, Brix and his wife farm 1,650 acres and operate a custom hay baling business to help feed their 55-cow beef operation. He and his family are known for their Christmas light display set to music, which includes 80,000 lights and takes four weeks to set up.

Lane Fredrickson. Lane is co-chair for the field demonstration tram team when the Farm Progress Show is in Decatur. After Bill Turner’s passing, Lane and John Zelhart took on organizing tram drivers, riders and tent workers for the show. Volunteers from various organizations help with the trams, and the Farm Progress Show donates to their cause.

Away from the show, Lane is manufacturing operations manager for Align Production Systems in Decatur, celebrating his 10th year there in September. He and his wife live near Maroa, Ill., and still operate the family’s Sesquicentennial farm. They have three sons.

John Zelhart. Zelhart was a tram volunteer in 2015, helping raise money for Maroa & Forsyth United Methodist Church and the Maroa & Forsyth United Methodist’s Men’s group. He became co-chair of the tram operation with Lane Fredrickson. He and his wife, Jill, have two sons and two granddaughters. Zelhart farms with two brothers, Dave and James, and son Ryan, in the Maroa and Warrensburg area.

Visit the Farm Progress Show, Aug. 31 to Sept. 2 at Decatur, Ill.