Work overalls designed especially for women, a unit that turns spraying data into real-time agronomic insight, and a high-capacity system to collect combine residue.
Those entries from — respectively — AgPro Workwear, Weed It Canada and Feed Works are among the contenders from across Canada and the United States competing for a prize worth up to $1,000 when this year’s Innovation Showcase opens its door.
WHY IT MATTERS: The Innovation Showcase is a popular draw at Manitoba Ag Days, showcasing the latest novel agricultural solutions. Equipment entries are particularly plentiful this year.
Read Also
Ag Days innovation victories bring business benefits
Past Innovation Showcase winners say their award boosted business, farmer interest, product recognition. Manitoba Ag Days 2026 is coming soon.
Visitors to Manitoba Ag Days 2026 are once again expected to flock into a corner of Brandon’s Keystone Centre set aside for the Innovation Showcase Jan. 20-22.
Entrants are spread over seven categories:
- ag tech
- agribusiness
- equipment
- agronomics
- animal and livestock
- farm-built solutions
- farm safety
Each innovation must be “unique and new to the Manitoba market,” the show’s website states.
“A priority will be placed on innovations that are unique or significantly different from products that are currently available in the marketplace.
Prizes are presented to first and second place entrants in each category during the show.
The 2026 event will mark the seventh for the showcase.
“Many companies have gotten their start at our show and we couldn’t be happier to help,” wrote Dwayne Leslie, Innovation Showcase committee chair, in a news release.
“This showcase provides an opportunity for innovators to get direct feedback from producers and the producers also benefit because they get to ask questions to see how an innovation could fit in their operation.”
Innovations Showcase 2026
There are 28 entries in this year’s event, 10 in the equipment category alone.
Leslie noted particular anticipation for the equipment lineup, saying, “It will be a very tough category to judge.”
One entrant in that category is Eldon Obach of Feed Works in Wawanesa, Man. He is entering the Boomerang Residue Max, the latest in a line of high-capacity, conveyor-based chaff and straw collection systems he’s been manufacturing and selling since 2019.
Although this is the first time he’s entered a product at the Innovation Showcase, Obach has been displaying his primarily livestock-focused equipment at Ag Days for over three decades and across various points of his career.
“It’s been a great show for me,” said Obach, who first attended Ag Days as an exhibitor for H & L Motors in Glenboro in the mid-1990s.
“We had four tractors in (the Hitching Ring) and they were Landinis. It was a new tractor to western Canada and we sold each one of those Landinis within two months of the show. Three of them were people that we met at the show,” he recalled.
In 2024, Ag Days farmer board representative Mike Cousins noted the popularity of the Innovation Showcase among producers.
“That’s not surprising, considering the ag industry is constantly reaching for new heights in efficiency,” Cousins said. “I think a lot of folks come to the show to see what’s new and great and, with the seven different categories, there’s something for everybody whether you’re into ag equipment or livestock.”
Prizes
First-place comes with $1,000 in advertising dollars from Glacier FarmMedia, the parent company of the Manitoba Co-operator, plus $500 cash from Manitoba Ag Days. Second place will receive $500 in advertising dollars from Glacier FarmMedia and $250 cash from Manitoba Ag Days.
The Western Producer and the Manitoba Co-operator co-present the showcase, and seven Glacier FarmMedia brands sponsor the different categories.
More information on the Innovation Showcase and Manitoba Ag Days is available on the Ag Days website or on the Manitoba Co-operator’s online landing page.
— With files from Gord Leathers
