MAGIE 2011: Celebrating 30 Years Of Gears

By Jean Payne|July 22, 2011

Thirty years ago, members of the Illinois Fertilizer & Chemical Association developed an idea to host a special event to showcase technological advances in the equipment side of the ag retail industry. They gave the show a friendly, feminine name: MAGIE (Midwest AG Industries Exposition) and she has aged beautifully. Today, we look back at pictures taken at the first MAGIE show in 1982 in awe of how much has changed since then … and what is yet to come? MAGIE provides a front-row seat to evolution in our industry.

Through 30 years of changing technologies, MAGIE has been the venue in the Central U.S. to see what the equipment and service providers have to offer to the ag retail sector. The changes over the years in equipment has been drastic, but MAGIE has been a constant, welcoming people from around the country to her unique atmosphere that embraces all that is great about the supply and service sector of the ag industry.

Over the years, MAGIE has sometimes been battered by storms and humbled by heat, but has been mostly blessed by blue skies and a reliable central Illinois breeze. And who can forget 2001, when we experimented with moving MAGIE to September and were together as an industry to grieve the attack on the U.S. and the lives lost on 9-11, putting everything we take for granted in the USA in perspective.

Looking back at it all, MAGIE has given something special to all of us in this industry. A place to gather, to remember the shows of the past, to experience today and to look forward to a future that holds great promise. We’ve all freely chosen a career that challenges us to feed humans and animals and do it responsibly — what can be better than that?