The World Ag Expo opened today under a blanket of dense fog.
The expo ground is in the heart of California's San Joaquin Valley, and the surrounding mountains trap so much moisture that some days during winter the fog's so thick that it’s impossible to drive anywhere – something that would clearly be a disaster to this machinery-loving town.
It was quite sinister to wander around the showground and see enormous tractors loom out of the fog less than a few feet in front of you. And this seemed to happen every few steps.
As one farmer said to me, it may billed as a farming expo, but in reality it’s an enormous showcase of machinery stretching from one side of the 60 acre ground to the other.
While I recognised most of the names and machines on show, there were quite a few things that I had never seen before because they’re not used in the UK.
Cotton strippers, grape pickers, almond harvesters and tomato pickers were lined up, looking as alien as a row of Transformers.
I came across another giant machine that chipped wood, which, according to the salesman, was only their small model. The full-sized version couldn’t fit on the show ground.
But my favourite of the alien machines was the Terminator. Seeing the giant ‘The Terminator is here’ flag from the other side of the showground, I thought California’s governor had decided to pay a visit to the show ground.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t Arnie, but something I found just as intriguing – a gopher disposal unit.
After watching a demonstration using a stuffed gopher toy, I was quite glad we don’t have a gopher problem in the UK.
It was all very well with a pretend pest, but I’m not sure I’d like to see the Terminator in action on a farm.
In fact, if I ever saw one of those looming out of the fog towards me, I’d make myself disappear, and fast.