COLUMBUS, Ohio — This year’s Farm Science Review (FSR) will be the 50th anniversary of the farm show. Organizers want to make contact with individuals who attended the early reviews dating back to 1963 when it was held at The Ohio State University’s Don Scott Field.

“Progress is the very thing that the FSR is about, and we want to learn about the ways the review has brought innovation and technology to farmers over the last 50 years,” said Chuck Gamble, manager of the FSR. “We can tell stories about the three-day span of the review, but the real impact is what happens after the review inspires adoption of new technology or methods on the farm.”

This year’s theme is about how the FSR has always been about technology and innovation, said Melanie Wilt, FSR spokeswoman, and how the FSR has been one of the ways technology has been brought to farmers during the last 50 years.

“I look back to my first Farm Science Reviews that I attended with my dad and my brothers, so there is an emotional connection for me with the farm, but at the same time I remember the innovation that was always front and center,” she said.

The organizers are looking for farmers who have participated in the review over the years, to tell the stories about their participation – how they found technology through the FSR and have taken that back to their farms and used it, Wilt said.

“How that has helped them with adoption of new technology or changing the methods they use on their farms?” she asked. “I am sure there are people out there who have attended every single review over the last 50 years. At the time nobody recognized this as an event that was going to happen annually for the next 50 years.”

In particular, Gamble and Wilt are interested in finding:

•People who have attended every review

•People in attendance at the first review

•Innovations adopted after their introduction at the FSR

•Family memories that involve the FSR

•Multigenerational stories of FSA attendance

•Exhibitors’ innovations in the last 50 years

“We want this to be about farmers and the technology, and how that has been used and has impacted agriculture beyond the three-day period of the FSR,” Wilt said.

If anyone is interested in contributing, they should submit their story along with their contact information, memories or photos by email to lindsay@wiltpr.com or by calling 765-967-7539. Please submit digital copies of photos, as they will not be returned.

This year’s FSR will be Sept. 18-20 at the Molly Caren Agricultural Center in London, Ohio. Advance sale tickets will be available July 15 at OSU extension offices for $5. Agribusinesses also offer advance ticket sales.

The FSR is sponsored by the College of Food, Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, OSU extension and the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center. It attracts more than 140,000 visitors from all over the country and Canada, who come for three days to peruse 4,000 product lines from 600 commercial exhibitors, and to learn the latest in agricultural research, conservation, family and nutrition and gardening and landscape.