Old and New at the World Ag Expo-

Tulare Event Now in 57th Year

This steer from the Beefmasters breed was among the animals featured at the Cattle Auction held in conjunction with the 2025 World Ag Expo in Tulare. Photo: Steve Newvine

It was all on display: a fast-talking auctioneer, anxious attendees watching from the bleachers, and bidders raising the prices with gestures as simple as a nod of their heads. It is in full view at this year’s World Ag Expo in Tulare.

Western States Beefmasters Breeding Association members staged a cattle auction in the livestock tent at the annual farm showcase event held on the second Tuesday and Wednesday in February.

While this was only the second year the Breeding Association tried an auction at the venue, the Expo is now marking fifty-seven years of serving agricultural producers and the companies that provide equipment and services to the industry.

The Western States Beefmasters Breeding Association represents cattle ranchers who raise the Beefmasters breed. Photos: Steve Newvine

As a member of the Association’s board of directors, John Evangelo believes in the brand. Even in retirement, he raises Beefmasters at his Lemoore, Kings County ranch.

“It’s a better quality and more efficient animal,” Evangelo said. “We use fewer pounds of feed to produce more pounds of beef.”

Throughout California, nearly twenty farmers raise the Beefmasters brand. They include John Rocha of Rocha Way Farms in Gustine, Merced County. Rocha says a live cattle auction like the one staged at the World Ag Expo serves a dual purpose.

“The attendees get to see something different,” he says. “But the real purpose is to promote the brand and help farmers become a little more knowledgeable.”

Vendors, including this water drilling company, showcase their products and services to the ag and food processing industries at the World Ag Expo. Photo: Steve Newvine

The World Ag Expo boasts attendance of over one hundred thousand people coming to Central California from forty-nine states and eighty-one countries.

The first Expo was held on the Tulare County Fairgrounds, but over the years, the event moved to a seven-hundred-acre parcel of land along the eastern side of California Highway 99.

The Expo is the largest agricultural showcase in the western United States. The vendors come from all walks of farming. They bring everything they need to show agricultural producers the latest in farm equipment.  

On site this year was a large water drilling rig that towered over the hundreds of outdoor displays.

Inside one of the exhibition halls before the start of the World Ag Expo. Photo: Steve Newvine

In the exhibition halls, attendees could see many things, including computer technology. That technology promised to empower today’s modern farmers with the tools they need to measure yields and achieve greater enterprise efficiency.

Another remarkable feature of the World Ag Expo was the focus on helping local non-profits in Tulare and surrounding counties. The vendors selling food were service agencies such as the United Way or local service clubs. The groups raised money to carry out their work throughout the community.

Along with the equipment displays and demonstrations, over a dozen educational seminars ran throughout the two-day event.  

All of this, and new since last year’s show, a live cattle auction. As the Western State Beefmasters board member John Evangelo looks back on the second year of his organization’s auction, he believes the event was a win for everyone.

“Beefmasters is the sixth largest breed of beef in the US, and it is huge in Mexico, “ he said.   

“The auction allowed us to get our members together along with other ranchers.”

New things like the latest equipment and technology, combined with traditional things such as a cattle auction or just plain networking with other farmers, were all part of this annual tradition in Tulare. -

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.  

His California books are available at the Merced County Courthouse Museum gift shop and Bookish Modesto at the Roseburg Square Shopping Center, 811 W Roseburg Avenue in Modesto. His latest book, Jack & Johnny: Benny, Carson and a Friendship Made for Television, is available there as well, or it can be ordered at Jack & Johnny (lulu.com)