Indiana's Secretary of Agriculture Sue Ellspermann made her first visit to the Farm Progress Show, Decatur, Ill., on Wednesday.
Ellspermann spent most of her time interacting with farmers and visiting Hoosier businesses exhibiting at the show.
"Someone (outside of agriculture) asked why I would come to Decatur, Ill., and I told them agriculture is important to Indiana's economy, and many of our Hoosier businesses are involved. Many of our farmers also were at the show," she said.
Ellspermann was also excited to see Indiana involvement in conservation efforts at the show. Professionals from Indiana and from the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Indiana helped conduct programs and answer questions in the cover crop demonstration area. Live cover crops were growing on the site and accessible to visitors.
Ellspermann ended her day at Equipment Technologies, the Mooresville-based company that manufactures Apache sprayers. The company introduced two new 2016 models at the show which have meet Tier IV final emissions regulations set by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The lieutenant governor talked about economic conditions and about the business climate with Matt Hays of Equipment Technologies.
She has visited the company before, and Hays invited her to return and take a test drive in one of their new sprayers on their test track at their Mooresville location. The "track" mimics a real field with a hill that lets them see how sprayers will perform under real world conditions.
Ellspermann even found her way into the cab, and was excited by the technology that Hays showed her in the 2016 Apache sprayer.
Earlier, she visited with Hoosiers involved in the UAV trend and commented at how fast that technology is progressing.
Before leaving, Ellspermann said the Indiana Department of Agriculture would take a closer look at how they might be involved when the Farm Progress Show returns to Decatur in 2017.