Lauren Duyck, 4, right, and brother, Marshall Duyck, 7, make wildflower seed bombs at the Central Oregon Agricultural Show on Saturday at the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center in Redmond.

From vendors to speakers, to a working dog show and an exhibition of antique gas engine and tractor machines, the Central Oregon Agricultural Show at the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center brought out hundreds for the two-day event in Redmond.

The ag show, presented by Coastal Farm & Ranch, started on Friday and featured a number of activities, food trucks and informational sessions for ag industry professionals.

Outside at the expo center, people gathered around an exhibition from the Early Day Gas Engine and Tractor Association, Branch 248, which featured antique farming and mining equipment.

The chugging and clanking of turn-of-the-century technology was punctuated by the crunching of a rock crusher from the early 1900s, and the buzzing of a 120-year-old saw.

Tom Street, 75, of Bend, the owner of the old buzz saw, demonstrated the technology’s power by cutting logs of wood as people stopped to admire a machine from another age.

“My grandfather, back when I was very young, in the ‘60s, he told me it was mine, and I didn’t even know what it was or anything else. And he said, ‘someday you’ll appreciate it,’” Street yelled over the sound of the chugging engine and rushing belts. “And so, here it is. I’m appreciating it.”

Street said he has more than one old machine and that he collects them as a hobby. His strategy to find the machines, he said, is to travel around and find the oldest guy in town and knock on his door.

Logan Hanna, 19, of Powell Butte was helping out at the exhibition. He, too, is a collector of old machines and said his first one was given to him by his great uncle when he was 9 years old. For Hanna, the machines are important artifacts from the past, but the hobby is not for everyone.

“It is all from a different time and I plan to try and keep history alive with all of these engines and tractors,” Hanna said. “They are an acquired taste by a lot of people. It takes time and a lot of money to find the right ones that you want.”

Inside the bustling expo center, where it was much warmer, Matt Cyrus and his daughter Awbrey Cyrus, were browsing the different booths.

Cyrus and his daughter are 6th and 7th generation farmers and ranchers. Awbrey’s 8-month-old daughter will be the 8th generation in a long line of family that has sustained itself and others on agriculture since they came to Oregon in the 1840s, Matt Cyrus said.

Cyrus said the ag industry is one of the largest industries in the country and is more than agricultural production. It includes equipment manufacturing, fertilizers and chemical production, and the distribution of goods and services. There are also chemists and engineers in the ag industry, Cyrus said.

“Those are all multibillion dollar industries and so literally agriculture and businesses and industries related to agriculture comprise a large amount of the U.S. economy,” Cyrus said. “Agriculture is one of our most critical industries in the state and for years it went back and forth between timber and agriculture and I think hi-tech has beat out both of them now as the main economic driver.”

The ag industry itself has gotten a lot more hi-tech over the years, Cyrus said, and the equipment used in Oregon today, one of the most agriculturally diverse states in the nation, make the antique equipment showcased outside look quaint in comparison.

Over in the children’s education center, Dawn Alexander of Redmond, a retired elementary school teacher and the president of the board of Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation, was teaching the next generation of ag professionals about where their food comes from.

“A lot of kids growing up now live in town, and even though we are a rural community, a lot of the children I teach don’t really know where their food comes from,” Alexander said.

When teaching, she focuses on the five F’s: farming, food, fishing, forestry and flowers, she said. She also teaches children about farming and ranching and about the more than 250 different commodities produced in Oregon.

Alexander grew up on a beef cattle ranch before becoming a teacher. Part of her goal as an educator is to inspire the next generation to pursue a career in Oregon’s diverse and rich agricultural industry.

“There is a lot of technology involved in agriculture that a lot of people don’t even realize… There’s lots of jobs. Because even your homes, your fiber, they are all ag related so there are a lot of careers kids can get into and still be involved in agriculture,” Alexander said.