Pennsylvania Farm Show plows ahead with phone app

    The Pennsylvania Farm Show will open Saturday with 6,000 animals and 250 events. This year, the state is offering one way to make the nation’s biggest indoor agriculture expo feel a little smaller.

    The Farm Show in Harrisburg stretches out over 24 acres with an enormous assortment of things to see, touch and taste.

    Feeling overwhelmed?

    There’s an app for that.

    • WHYY thanks our sponsors — become a WHYY sponsor

    Nicole Bucher, spokeswoman for the state Department of Agriculture, says the Farm Show’s website has mapping and scheduling tools.

    “You can actually search by day or location and search for the booths that you want and then you can actually map your show and then print it out and bring it with you,” she said.

    Those tools work on smartphones as well, so visitors can strategize in the thick of the exhibits.

    And the Farm Show website has more than navigational tips.

    There are two live web cams–one trained on a duck slide, the other to monitor chick hatchlings.

    The show will be open for a week, starting Saturday. The judging for the life-sized butter sculpture and other exhibits will begin Thursday.

    WHYY is your source for fact-based, in-depth journalism and information. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on financial support from readers like you. Please give today.

    Want a digest of WHYY’s programs, events & stories? Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

    Together we can reach 100% of WHYY’s fiscal year goal