From the Northeast to the Northwest, May 9 and 10th was a busy weekend for John Deere forestry equipment dealers and customers alike. It was the weekend that two notable forestry shows took place: the Northeastern Forest Products Expo in Vermont, and the Interior Logging Association Annual Trades Convention in British Columbia.

On the eastern end of the continent, more than 5,200 attendees were present at the Northeastern Forest Products Expo, which is one of the biggest logging shows of the year for the region. The show is co-sponsored by the Northeastern Loggers' Association and the Northern Logger & Timber Processor magazine. Location changes year-to-year, and was held in Essex Junction, Vermont this time around.

The John Deere booth was busy with curious and generous onlookers, who raised more than $2500 for Log-a-Load for Kids over the two day event, a fund raiser for the Children’s Miracle Network. Each donor received a JD hat and a chance to win one of six prizes donated by John Deere: two battery-powered children's Gators, children's bikes, and a remote-controlled 850J dozer.

Eight John Deere forestry machines were on static display at the show, supported by Nortrax sales folks, JD representatives, and JD credit: 548G, 748H and 848H skidders, 843J, 753J feller buncher with a FS22B John Deere felling head as well as a 753JH with Waratah 622B processing head, a 703JH with Waratah HTH616 head, and a 1270D harvester. In addition, a 1410D forwarder was working in the live demo. All of the John Deere machines were catching eyes, and the booth was quite busy.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the continent and north of the Canada-USA border, the Interior Logging Association of British Columbia was celebrating its 50th year. The ILA’s 50th Annual Trades Convention was held at a new location in Kamloops, BC, away from the fair grounds where it usually is held every other year; the show is in Vernon, BC on alternate years. The new Kamloops location was ideal according to the guys from Brandt Tractor, the John Deere dealer present at the show.

Brandt Tractor supplied a 959J buncher with the John Deere FR24B felling head, 2054 processor with Waratah 622B head, 748H skidder, 2054 with hydraulic log loading grapple, 2454D log loader with grapple, as well as an 850J dozer for road building equipped with a 6-way blade. The 2454D is new this year, and it got a lot of attention according to Brandt’s sales manager at Kamloops, Mike Shappell.

“Customer feedback, both on our equipment and our displays, was all very positive,” Mike begins. “The 2454D certainly got a lot of interest. We didn’t have anything like that before, and it’s going to go a long way for our customers.”

Reid Zimmerling, head of forestry for Brandt Tractor, agreed. “The 2454D Log Loader was the most popular,” he begins. “That’s a new model, and it’s going to be introduced in June. It got a lot of attention… as did the 748H skidder, which was just introduced last summer. A lot of people hadn’t seen it yet.”

The ILA show this year did not yield as much traffic as hoped, but the customers who did come out enjoyed themselves and had positive feedback.

All in all the two shows were a great opportunity for customers to get out and see the latest and greatest from John Deere forestry. Check the JD forestry home page or your local Deere equipment dealer for upcoming trade shows in your region.

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