Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
Farm Progress history
Farm Progress company history timeline
Prairie Farmer, the nation's oldest farm publication, was founded in 1841 by a young Easterner, John S. Wright, who moved to Chicago when the city was becoming a marketing center for grain, livestock, and other farm products.
Map publishers Rand McNally and Company bought the magazine in 1882.
The magazine suffered some lean years with small issues until Burridge D. Butler bought the publication in 1909.
In 1928, Butler purchased the Chicago radio station WLS from Sears Roebuck and Company for $250,000.
The first Farm Progress Show took place on October 2, 1953 on the Earl Bass farm in Armstrong, Illinois and hosted over 75,000 visitors.
Early in 1953, Prairie Farmer joined forces with WLS-Radio in Chicago with the idea to host a farm event even better than the mechanical corn picking contests taking place around the Midwest at that time.
The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) purchased the company from Butler's heirs in 1959.
Miller Publishing Company, based outside of Minneapolis Minnesota, was purchased as a part of this acquisition strategy, and was included with Farm Progress to form The ABC Agricultural group in 1983.
In 1986, Capital Cities purchased ABC and combined its publishing divisions together to form the Midwest Publishing Group.
Then in 1991, Farm Progress acquired the Harvest Publications from Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich (HBJ). The company expanded its Midwest presence to a national leader in agricultural publishing.
Later in 1995, ABC was purchased by the Walt Disney Company.
Due to the strategy of maintaining a core of like-business assets, Disney sold many of its publishing companies in 1997.
The 2005 show marked the first show at its permanent biennial Decatur, Ill. site and hosted more than 500 exhibitors.
In 2007, Rural Press in Australia merged with Fairfax Media.
The Decatur site was expanded for the 2007 show to host more than 600 exhibitors and record numbers of show visitors.
26, 2011 – 7:30 p.m.Ottumwa, IAPresenter: Indian Hills Community CollegeSt John Auditorium, 525 Grandview Avenuehttp://www.indianhills.edu/ Free and open to the public Thursday, Jan.
27, 2011 – 7 p.m.Waukee, IAPresenter: Waukee Arts CouncilArtsCentral, 405 Maple Streethttp://www.waukeearts.org/ $10 for adults, $5 for students, tickets available at Waukee hardware or at the door
20, 2011 – early evening (time to be announced)Guttenberg, IAPresenter: Guttenberg Development & TourismCity Auditorium, 502 S. 1st Sthttp://www.guttenbergiowa.net/
21, 2011 – 7 p.m.West Union, IAPresenter: Main Street West Union / North Fayette Fine Arts AuditoriumPerforming Arts Center, North Fayette High School, 600 N. Pine Sthttp://www.westunion.com/
28, 2011 – 7 p.m.Council Bluffs, IAPresenter: Bluffs Arts CouncilCouncil Bluffs Public Library, 400 Willow StreetVenue: To be announcedhttp://www.bluffsarts.org/
In 2012, Farm Progress was sold to Penton Media Inc.
The exhibition is scheduled to open in May 2015.
Rate how well Farm Progress lives up to its initial vision.
Farm Progress jobs
Do you work at Farm Progress?
Does Farm Progress communicate its history to new hires?
Farm Progress history FAQs
Zippia gives an in-depth look into the details of Farm Progress, including salaries, political affiliations, employee data, and more, in order to inform job seekers about Farm Progress. The employee data is based on information from people who have self-reported their past or current employments at Farm Progress. The data on this page is also based on data sources collected from public and open data sources on the Internet and other locations, as well as proprietary data we licensed from other companies. Sources of data may include, but are not limited to, the BLS, company filings, estimates based on those filings, H1B filings, and other public and private datasets. While we have made attempts to ensure that the information displayed are correct, Zippia is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of this information. None of the information on this page has been provided or approved by Farm Progress. The data presented on this page does not represent the view of Farm Progress and its employees or that of Zippia.
Farm Progress may also be known as or be related to Farm Progress, Farm Progress Companies and Farm Progress Companies Inc.