Permanent Home and Dates Yield Record Crowds for Fifth annual Dairy XPO - Cowsmo

Permanent Home and Dates Yield Record Crowds for Fifth annual Dairy XPO

A record-breaking attendance of 16,050 dairy producers were at Canada’s most prevalent dairy event – the Canadian Dairy XPO.

CDX held at its permanent home of the Stratford Rotary Complex, Wednesday, April 5th (attendance 8,650) & Thursday, April 6th (attendance 7,400) welcomed producers from across Canada and beyond; coming to see cutting edge global technology and innovation from 350 exhibiting dairy companies.

CDX Main Entrance
CDX Main Entrance

This year’s attendance surpassed 2016’s by 1,150 (2016 attendance 14,900), setting an attendance record for the largest dairy tradeshow in Canada. Understanding that there are only around 15,000 dairy farms in all of Canada, this attendance represents a significant portion of Canadian dairy producers shipping milk.

“A world class dairy show,” is how Andy Dellava from Hoards Dairyman describes CDX. “The Canadian dairy industry has gained a lot more identity and visibility through the Canadian dairy XPO. This has put a face to the industry for the whole world to see, and I’m excited about that…the energy level – I don’t see this at any other dairy show I go to.” Andy has been the MC for the Purina Dairy Classroom for all five years of the XPO and Hoards Dairyman is a CDX media partner.

International flare can be seen in any of the 8 major tradeshow halls, with a full line up of global companies from over 30 countries – Israel, the Netherlands, UK, Germany, New Zealand, Mexico, the United States and Ireland, to name a few.

“Our international exhibitor participation continues to increase,” states General Manager and Founder Jordon Underhill. “We continue to see international companies either exhibiting or walking the XPO to get a pulse on the vibrant Canadian Dairy industry.

WeCover Cow Coliseum
WeCover Cow Coliseum

Our international exhibitor participation represents approximately 20% – which is expected as we stand strong in our mandate of bringing global innovation and knowledge to the Canadian producers. With five successful years behind us, we see tremendous opportunity for the continued growth of international partnerships to ensure Canadian dairy producers are efficient and sustainable for generations to come.”

World class educational programming was seen in the Purina Dairy Classroom throughout both days of the XPO.

Purina Dairy Classroom
Purina Dairy Classroom

Featuring speakers such as Purina CowSignals, The Incredible Dr. Pol, Heifer Calf Development Panel, tactical business; ultrasound workshop with long time Canadian vet Tom Wheal; and international dairy tours from the Global Dairy Farmers, based out of the Netherlands.

“We are passionate in this industry and its important to stay current with our training” states Brian Anderson from Anthlone Farms in Stratford Ontario. “Our younger employees are here to take in the CowSignals training. This is just the thing to encourage them to gain experience and understanding of the cows. Staying involved in the industry is important to our family, so we can lead the industry into a bright future”.

The permanent 400ft WeCover Cow Coliseum, presented by John Deere and Shur-Gain, continues to be the hub of dairy innovation and hospitality. Global companies such as Mueller and Madero made their XPO debut in 2017 and based on positive results, plan to return to CDX 2018.

“The youthful and energic attendance is definitely an indicator of the optimism in the Canadian dairy sector,” states Mike Kelley, Regional Sales Manager from the Paul Mueller Company. “We are committed to helping dairy producers and their families succeed, whether it’s through the latest milk cooling technology or through our fundraiser for 4-H”.  Mueller is a first-time exhibitor and creator of the new Mueller Ice Cream Bar. The initiative was a huge success with thousands (1,400) of ice cream bars sold, all 100% Canadian dairy. A 67-hundred gallon Mueller Milk Cooler, custom manufactured by Mueller’s expert stainless steel craftsman, was turned into the 4-H ice cream concession stand. Ice cream was donated by Chapmans.

In addition to the Mueller Ice Cream bar, the National Milk bar served 100% Canadian white and chocolate milk; Gay-Lea Skyview café served gourmet grilled cheese and milkshakes in Hall 2, and the Perth County Junior famers had a banner year selling their new JF apple fritters, located in the Forage & Milking Mall.

Also featured in the WeCover Cow Coliseum were four of the top milking robotic manufacturers’ in the world side-by-side (Lely, BouMatic, GEA and DeLaval), showcasing the latest in robotic milking automation

“Here at CDX, when I look around, the future of the industry looks exciting, promising and progressive” states John Brand from Hayfield Jerseys out of Clinton Ontario. “Seeing the range of ages, technology and everything we need to use daily on our farms is exciting. We come to CDX to see our neighbours from across the province, the country and even as far as Texas. It’s a day in a half or 2-day event by the time we see our neighbours and check out the education and workshops.”

The popular Cow Coliseum also featured elite dairy daughter displays, DeLaval 360˚ Virtual Euro Farm Tours and the Validity/Vogue Genomics Education Centre. Vogue also hosted a 4-H private treaty sale. CDX purchased the first heifer calf to sell and Vogue agreed to donate 100% of the sale funds to 4-H Ontario. CDX will then make the fancy red-polled heifer available to one lucky 4-H dairy youth for the 2017 show season. Details on how to qualify for this heifer will be available in the coming weeks on CDX social media channels. Motivated dairy youth stay tuned!

CheeseFEST held in the WeCover Cow Coliseum, showcased 100% Canadian cheese processors, local spirits, a live band and jukebox to celebrate the DHI Herd Management Score awards; CanWest DHI and Valacta had a formal recognition for the prestigious 2016 winners.

Due to a high demand from exhibiting companies, CDX implemented the branded bulk ticket program, which turned out to be a huge success. A total of 40 exhibiting companies participated, representing a total of 4700 tickets for VIP dairy producers. “We expect this program will incrementally grow year-over-year with more companies engaging in 2018, as this becomes a direct measurable against their participation in CDX annually” states Donna Underhill, CDX Marketing Manager.

2017 was a special year for the Canadian dairy industry, CDX was one of three national dairy events taking place during the first week of April in South-Western Ontario.  The Spring Discovery Show (Ancaster, Ontario April 3-6th) and National Holstein Convention (Markham, Ontario April 5-8th) both overlapped the XPO. CDX accommodated travelling producers by sponsoring two shuttle buses from the National Holstein Convention to CDX on Wednesday, April 5th. Other bus groups were from Eastern Ontario and Quebec; the first year in attendance was the large herd operator group Regroupement grandes fermes laitières du Québec (RGLFQ). Chartered flights from Western and Eastern Canada also helped boost overall attendance bringing influential producers to CDX, some for their first time.

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