New facility boosts expo attendance

The new Roosevelt County Events Arena played a major role in the success of this year’s Roosevelt County Ag Expo, according to expo officials.

Roosevelt County Chamber of Commerce director Karl Terry said in previous years the two-day event had exhibitions divided between as many as seven buildings and areas.

“It was like an Easter egg hunt for people attending,” said Terry about previous ag expos.

This year, marking the expo’s 20th, having all the vendors under one roof and seminars in a separate building made for an easy flow of traffic and garnered positive feedback from expo attendees and vendors.

“I thought (the ag expo) was really good,” Terry said. “Overall we’re very pleased. The new building was a resounding success in how we had it set up.”

Between the two days, Terry said about 3,000 people visited the expo, which is similar to past years.

However, Tuesday brought in what Terry says may have been a record 2,200 for the first day of the expo based on the amount of clicks recorded at the front gates.

County Agricultural Agent Patrick Kircher said he tracked more West Texas attendees from years past at some of the seminars.

The Dairy Farmers of America luncheon numbers were also up and Terry said there were 25 more vendors than last year.

Good feedback also stemmed from the dog trials.

Roosevelt County farmer and rancher Amanda Clayton, who organized the dog trials, said she was pleased with the turnout she had with her goals being to expose the public to that kind of activity.

The Ag Expo committee will meet the first week of March to discuss what worked and what didn’t at this year’s expo.

They are planning on re-evaluating the changes they made to the expo’s hours.

They extended the first day’s hours this year from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. to accommodate those who have complained of not being able to attend because of work, but they did not see much traffic with those extended hours, according to Terry.