Improving lives by seeds we plant is the theme of the 54th annual 2018 Colorado Farm Show. The three-day event will be held Jan. 23-25 at Island Grove Regional Park in Greeley.

The event is one of the oldest and largest shows in the nation and showcases agriculture products, services and machinery, according to the event website.

The show was started in 1964 by a group of Colorado State University Extension agents. Extension, assisted by the Greeley Chamber of Commerce organized the show and the ag industry supports it financially. The first show was held Feb. 16-17 and was called the Colorado Agricultural Chemical Exposition. Two years later, in 1967 the name was changed to the Colorado Farm Show.

Event organizers take pride in the fact that the show relies heavily on volunteers.

In the early years, the Colorado Farm Show was held in the Greeley Community Building. As the show grew so did the numbers of exhibitors, attendees and space. In 2001, to accommodate the ever-expanding event, a new Community Building was built that doubled the exhibit space.

This year Erich Ehrlich, marketing manager for the Colorado Farm Show, expects they will have more than 300 exhibitors, which is a far cry from the 30 exhibitors the show hosted when it first started.

Also added to the farm show are days focused on beef, equine and dairy. For the 2017 farm show organizers added a Colorado Ag Education Day where several topics were covered including GMOs, antibiotic use in livestock, the Colorado Farm to School Program, irrigation and drones.

“That was our first year and that is returning this year after a successful debut last year,” Ehrlich said. “We will have members from the Colorado Young Farmers Educational Association and the Colorado Vocational Agriculture Teachers Association delivering the educational programs and classes.

New to the show this year will be a sheep and ag energy day, which will be on Thursday, Jan. 25, Ehrlich said.

Attendees also have the opporunity to listen to speakers on topics from pest management to beef quality assurance to stewardship an stockmanship.

For more information, visit the website at http://www.coloradofarmshow.com, which will be updated as the show nears,