COLUMBUS, Ohio – If you’re still looking for the beef, you found plenty of it at the Ohio Expo Center in Columbus March 16-19.

The Ohio Beef Expo’s 35th edition hosted more than 30,000 people and over 1,500 head of cattle during its four-day run. The exhibition featured nine breed sales, an indoor and outdoor trade show—with over 150 vendors, youth education opportunities, a judging contest & beef quality assurance training, and a competitive junior show.

Jim Rentz and Fred Dailey – leaders who had the foresight to bring people together in the mid-1980s and initiated the first Expo and were part of the inaugural Expo – were recognized during the event. 

Rentz and Dailey combined their experience in the cattle industry with the efforts of others to turn their vision into reality.

“Henry Bergfeld – an Angus breeder from eastern Ohio – was OCA president, and I used to travel for the Angus Journal so we were both familiar with shows and sales,” Rentz said. “Iowa started theirs and it was successful. Kentucky then came after them and then they had their first year and they were successful. So, Henry and I went to Fred Dailey and said we think we need to start an Expo – that’s how we started and it’s just grown.”

Dailey said, “I was executive secretary of the Ohio Cattlemen Association when we started this back in 1988. They tried this twice before and due to some bad luck they failed, one time was during the Blizzard of ‘78. Anyhow, this was kind of the third strike force and we worked hard to make it successful. Everybody thought it worked out well and wanted to do it again.”

Elizabeth Harsh, OCA executive director, is the Expo’s “Culture Keeper.” In her tenure with the association, Harsh has played a part in planning and operating all 35 events. “I was on staff with the Ohio Cattlemen’s Association from the beginning,” Harsh said.” Fred Dailey was the executive director at the time and I worked for him, so I was involved in the organization of the first Expo.”

Since its inception in 1988, the Ohio Beef Expo has been held at the Ohio Expo Center in Columbus. “The first trade show was held in the unheated eastside of the historical Voinovich building. Exhibitor booths were less than ideal with a steel beam in the middle of each narrow booth,” Harsh said.

“They did not, they didn’t realize how big we were going to be for the first year, they thought we’d have a couple of thousand people, we had 10,000,” Rentz said.

“We had terrible facilities here the first three years I was in charge of the OCA and trying to get all this organized,” Dailey said. “And then on February 11th of 1991, the governor appointed me as director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture – a position I kept for the next 16 years.

“I had a very good relationship with the governor and a year after I was appointed, the Capital Budget came up and I went to the governor and said we’ve got a great show out there, but we’ve got a terrible facility and we’d like to build a new beef barn and show arena. We needed about $7 million back then to build it.

“The governor was very cooperative, very supportive, and we named the building after him,” Dailey said. “Now we have great facilities and the show has grown by leaps and bounds and it’s very nice to see that.”

The facilities at the Expo Center have improved significantly over the years, Harsh said. “Today’s Expo trade show is sold-out each year and is the envy of most similar events held throughout the country. It’s just phenomenal – the growth. You know, it certainly didn’t start at the size that it is today. We hear that from our exhibitors as well as our attendees that it’s the best trade show anywhere.”

Rentz said, “The trade show in the first year was in two buildings right outside here, and we were in there half an hour before it started and we didn’t have any heat because gas lines were leaking. They weren’t even prepared for us. But we survived. I’m surprised that all of the trade show people stayed with us, but it got better and better.”

“I think right now there are probably 150 trade show exhibitors over there today. It’s amazing and it’s been wonderful. It draws people in from every part of the ag industry,” Rentz said.

Levi Matthews, with Armstrong Ag & Supply – a livestock equipment company in Jackson, Ohio – represents a 35-year exhibitor that values relationships and wide exposure to current and potential customers.

“I believe my boss worked the first Expo, so I think we’ve done all of them,” Matthews said. “This show allows us to meet with possible clientele from all over the state and neighboring states as well on the cattle handling side of stuff and on the feeders and waters.

“We do several shows throughout the year – this one’s kind of in our backyard – we’re an hour and 45 minutes south of here,” Matthews said. “It gives us a chance to catch up with customers from previous years and continue to work on relationships and be able to visit with them and see what you can do to help continue to improve their operations.”

In addition to the trade show the Expo prides itself on the seed stock sale, junior show, and genetic pathway center. “The Expo doesn’t have just one event that excels; we have the largest, most successful trade show, a really strong seed stock sale component with nine sales this year, and a competitive junior show,” Harsh said. The Expo provides a high-level experience for attendees, exhibitors and competitors.

The Expo junior show is the last and the largest of the OCA’s BEST-sanctioned show program. BEST (Beef Exhibitor Show Total) is a youth program that recognizes Ohio’s junior beef exhibitors for participation and placings through a series of sanctioned cattle shows that include showmanship competitions.

The show series consists of seven events beginning last December and culminating at the Beef Expo.

Ohio’s 17,700 beef farms – with 312,000 head of cattle – rank 12th nationally. The satisfaction and impact of the Expo are not lost on Harsh. “It’s watching all the volunteer effort that comes together for a successful event year after year that continues to evolve – just being able to see everybody coming together for Ohio’s beef industry every year,” Harsh said.

Harsh is aware of the dual impact the event has on her and Central Ohio. “You see people that you haven’t seen since last year’s Expo, so it’s just the whole people side of it. Coupled with what it does in terms of the economic benefit to Ohio’s beef industry, not to mention the Columbus area economy,” Harsh said.

The magnitude still causes a “wow” moment for the founders.

“I think that moment for me came when I was driving in and I saw acres and acres and acres of stock trailers parked out there,” Dailey said. “I’m proud of the fact that it’s been so successful and grown and they were doing a lot of things back then. We started a magazine called The Ohio Cattlemen and that helped bring everybody together and serves as the communication piece for the OCA.”

Harsh said, “The OCA also values the great partnership they have with the Ohio Expo Center and their staff, including General Manager Virgil Strickler. These individuals all contribute to the Expo’s success.”

Dailey said, “It’s nice to see how it’s grown. If you’re in the cattle business, word quickly gets around that if you’re in Ohio or even in this region, this is the place to be when the Expo is going on.”

Rentz said, “We’ve had a lot of good people in the cattle business and the staff of Ohio Cattlemen has done a nice job. Lots of good people, it takes good people.”