MOULTRIE — The 27th Annual Sunbelt Agricultural Exposition chose Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (ABAC) as its 2004 Spotlight Exhibitor. That may be fitting because 40 years ago ABAC started what has become the Sunbelt Ag Expo.

Nancy Coleman, director of alumni relations at ABAC, said the college held the first “Dealer Day” on the ABAC campus in Tifton in 1964. The day gave students a chance to meet farm equipment dealers to inquire about jobs after graduation and to see the newest farm equipment.

The first Dealer Day was solely for members of ABAC’s Agricultural Equipment Technology (AET) club, but Coleman said it was quickly expanded to include the entire student body. It was also extended from one day to a three-day event.

As Dealer Day continued to grow larger and larger, Coleman said the event was moved to the University of Georgia’s nearby Rural Development Center. The name was changed from “Dealer Day” to the “Farm Power and Recreation Expo.”

The event continued to grow and organizers sought a place to hold the expanding exposition, and Coleman said ABAC students began to look at Spence Field in Moultrie. In 1973, engineering students at ABAC started to design Spence Field in order to hold the exposition.

Coleman said ABAC students were the only manual labor used as the former military air base was being redesigned. The exposition did provide money to the Agricultural Division at ABAC for their work.

The event moved to Spence Field in 1978 and became “Sunbelt Agricultural Exposition,” Coleman said. ABAC has remained a part of the exposition, and had a building constructed for their used during the exposition in 1999. The building replaced a tent ABAC had used for the previous 20 years.

ABAC’s AET club is still a part of the Sunbelt Ag Expo, assisting with the stock dog trials, according to Jimmy Grubbs, the mechanical technician for ABAC’s Division of Agriculture and Forest Resources. Grubbs was also a member of AET when “Dealer Day” was started.