<p>The 29th annual Sunbelt Agricultural Exposition, billed as the world's largest farm show with field demonstrations, opens Tuesday with 1,200 exhibits highlighting labor-saving technology as well as leisure products to enhance rural life.</p><p>"Our mission is agriculture," said Chip Blalock, executive director of the three-day show at Spence Field near Moultrie. "But we do have something for the entire family.... It's also a good time for consumers of agricultural products to come and see what the farmer is doing to produce the most economical, safest and abundant supply of food ... in the world."</p><p>Open from Tuesday to Thursday, the show is expected to attract about 200,000 visitors, including a few politicians.</p><p>Gov. Sonny Perdue, who is campaigning for re-election, will visit the show Tuesday, and the agriculture commissioners of Georgia, Alabama and Florida will take time out of their re-election campaigns to compete in a milking contest.</p><p>"We're trying to revitalize our dairy section and thought that would be a good, fun event that would also would create awareness for the dairy industry and the food products they provide, most notably milk," said Blalock.</p><p>Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin said he hasn't milked regularly since 1956, when he entered politics.</p><p>"I'll have to have a warmup period, kind of like the baseball pitchers," Irvin said. "I've told them to make sure ... it's not a kicker."</p><p>Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson, a University of Georgia graduate, said he hopes he remembers some of his dairy science training in Athens.</p><p>"I'm willing to do my part," he said.</p><p>Alabama Agricultural Commissioner Ron Sparks said he visited Auburn University's dairy operation recently and hopes that will help him prepare.</p><p>"I would hope that they get us some of the safer animals," Sparks said, noting that as politicians, the three commissioners already work in hazardous jobs.</p><p>"We're going to be there, we're going to have a game face on and we're going to be ready to go," Sparks said.</p><p>Sunbelt's 100-acre exhibit area will be filled with displays of all-terrain vehicles, lawn and garden products, hunting and fishing equipment and the latest cars and trucks.</p><p>Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton and five universities, including Clemson, the University of Florida and Auburn, have permanent exhibit halls at the expo filled with educational displays.</p><p>The Expo also has a working farm with 600 acres of cotton, corn, peanuts, hay and grain sorghum. Companies show off their latest tractors and harvesting equipment on the farm during the show.</p><p>New this year will be tractors powered by biodiesel fuel made from peanuts _ a response to high fuel prices and the need for alternative energy sources.</p><p>Sunbelt has featured self-steering tractors with satellite guidance systems for several years, but the ones demonstrated this year incorporate the latest advances in the technology, Blalock said. Proponents say GPS-guided tractors can increase yields and profits because they improve efficiency.</p><p>Rural residents have long complained of being stuck with sluggish dial-up Internet connections, years after their friends and relatives in town switched to high-speed connections.</p><p>But thanks to new technology, visitors and exhibitors will be able flip open their laptops and connect wirelessly from anywhere in the show grounds, according to a press release.</p><p>Camvera Networks Inc. of Roswell, along with several partners, will demonstrate how wireless networking can help growers manage their farms and how the technology can be used to bring wireless broadband to rural residents.</p><p>"A farmer will be able to basically control his entire farm from a PDA or a laptop," said Camvera spokesman Jordan Childs.</p><p>---</p><p>On the Net:</p><p>HASH(0x1cde984)</p><p>---</p><p>Elliott Minor has covered Georgia agriculture and rural issues for The Associated Press since 1984.</p>
