The holidays have come and gone and those in the animal health industry find themselves again in the middle of spring trade show season.

I've joked for years about how our lifestyle this time of year is similar to the carnivals that used to come to town when I was a kid.

We travel to a city, set up our booth to meet with our customers and suppliers, and, at the end, tear down and move on to the next city.

Durvet isn't much different than other companies in our business. We've gotten to the point where we have at least two (and sometimes three) full show sets shipping around the country. We literally have a member buying show or industry trade show going on every week until mid-spring.

Most recently a group of us traveled to Nashville to attend the annual NCBA (National Cattlemen’s Beef Association).

This show moves around the country every year to a nice location so the ranchers that mostly live in climates blanketed by winter can get together with their colleagues and find out what's new in the business.

This group is very politically active in everything that might impact their operations. Just looking at the agenda you see everything from trade policy discussions, EPA regulations and the influence they might have on Washington when they make decisions.

While working the booth in Nashville, I thought of all the friends I've made in the 30+ years I've been in this industry. Some of us are getting up there in years and look a lot different than we used to, but one thing that hasn't changed is the passion for agriculture and preserving our way of life.

Our industry truly feeds the world, and those in it are proud of that fact and want to do everything possible to make sure consumers have confidence in the products they consume.

As I wrote this, I was again on a plane heading to the West Coast. The first stop was for our largest distributors.

The Traveling Road Show continues...!!!