The sights and sounds of early American agriculture will return to Geneseo this September as the Antique Engine & Tractor Association celebrates its 65th Annual Working Farm Show.
The three-day event will be held Sept. 18–20 at the association’s nearly 70-acre showgrounds at 13451 IL Highway 92, east of Geneseo. This year’s show will feature Massey-Harris tractors and implements, along with Massey-Ferguson tractors and equipment.
For someone who has never attended, organizers say the show is much more than a display of antique machinery. It is designed to put that machinery back to work.
“The AE-TA annual show is a step back in time to the days of early agriculture when farm life was much simpler but extremely laborious,” organizers said. “It is a true ‘Working Farm Show.’”
Visitors can see and hear 100-year-old steam engines powering wheat threshers, hit-and-miss gasoline engines grinding corn and wheat into flour, and antique tractors working the fields. Corn and soybeans will be harvested while other equipment demonstrates plowing and tilling techniques once common on American farms.
And the activity goes well beyond tractors.
Throughout the grounds, visitors can watch lumber being cut at the sawmill, see blacksmithing demonstrations, watch corn being shelled from the crib and see sugar cane harvested and pressed into molasses. Other attractions include an apple press for cider, rug weaving, broom making, a tractor parade, the Mercantile and the Women’s Vendor Fair.
Families can also climb aboard the show's train, whose cars are pulled by diesel engines that once worked in copper mines in the eastern United States. Younger visitors will find plenty to do in the Kids’z Zone, including a corn box, barrel train rides, jump-rope making and other activities.
One attraction continues to stand out even among all that machinery: the association’s Timber Frame Barn.
Organizers describe the barn, with its early 1900s architecture, as the keystone of the showgrounds. For one organizer, it remains the exhibit most likely to leave a lasting impression on a first-time visitor.
“It’s difficult to choose one thing that amazes first-time visitors,” the organizer said. “If I had to choose one thing, it would be the Timber Frame Barn with its unique architecture.”
The organizer also recalled being struck during a first visit by how well the show was organized, the helpfulness of volunteers, the cleanliness of the grounds and buildings, and the number of activities available for visitors of all ages.
This year’s featured Massey-Harris and Massey-Ferguson equipment represents nearly 180 years of agricultural machinery history.
Daniel Massey established the Massey Manufacturing Company near Ontario, Canada, in 1847, while Alanson Harris formed A. Harris, Son & Co. in 1857. The companies produced farm implements including hand reapers, dump rakes and mowers before merging in 1891 to form the Massey-Harris Company.
Over the years, mergers and acquisitions expanded the company’s product line to include equipment such as disc harrows, wagons and manure spreaders. Massey-Harris purchased Harry Ferguson, Inc. in 1953, creating Massey-Harris-Ferguson Ltd. The company shortened its name to Massey Ferguson in 1957.
While the machinery is the attraction, organizers say the people behind the show are the reason it has continued for 65 years.
Members come from many walks of life, but many share memories of growing up on farms or spending time on a grandparent’s farm. Those memories have helped fuel a desire to preserve the equipment, skills and traditions associated with earlier generations of agriculture.
That effort is now being carried forward by second- and third-generation association members.
The show also serves an educational purpose at a time when many families are several generations removed from direct involvement in farming.
Part of the association's mission is to “promote community improvement, to educate and encourage preservation.” Organizers particularly hope younger visitors leave with a better understanding of the work behind agriculture and the connection between farms and the food families eat every day.
For kids, that lesson may begin with a train ride, a tractor or watching an old machine roar back to life. But organizers hope the experience leaves them with something more: an understanding that the food on the kitchen table begins long before it reaches the grocery store.
The 65th Annual Working Farm Show runs Friday through Sunday, Sept. 18–20, 2026. Admission is $10 per day or $20 for a weekend pass. Friday admission for veterans is $5, and children 12 and younger are admitted free. The showgrounds are located three miles east of Geneseo on Illinois Route 92.
