ROSEVILLE — The North Dumfries hamlet of Roseville will grow into a small city in September 2012.

That’s when the 99th International Plowing Match and Rural Expo takes over almost 400 hectares (1,000 acres) of farmland in the backyards of Cambridge and Kitchener.

“We’ll be looking at 20,000 people a day — that’s 100,000 people over the duration,” said Gord Taylor, who sits on the organizing committee for the plowing match, which runs from Sept. 18 to 22 in 2012.

If visitors pour in from the nearby Highway 401 interchange like Taylor hopes, attendance might touch 120,000 and turn a tidy profit for community groups and agencies.

“It’s all dependent on the weather. It’s a crap shoot,” said Taylor, a North Dumfries Township councillor. That’s not much different from the daily challenge he faces running his farm.

If the weather holds, the $5-million match budget could transform Roseville into Waterloo’s Region’s fourth largest municipality for a few days.

A 40-hectare (100-acre) tented city of exhibitors will spring up immediately northwest of Roseville, complete with electricity and water along a gridwork of streets. Think of a monster trade show under canvas.

Beside it, 1,800 serviced camp sites will be ready for visitors arriving in motor homes, with nightly entertainment on stage.

All around, fields will be marked out for plowing competitions, giving farmers a chance to show surgical skill in tilling the soil. There will also be demonstrations of the latest in farming and outdoor recreation equipment.

The plowing match is a huge opportunity to showcase all businesses in Waterloo Region, said Art Sinclair, vice president of the Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce.

“There’s always been a strong connection between urban and rural in Waterloo Region ... we have a fairly significant food-processing industry,” he said.

“This is going be an event for Waterloo Region — especially for the hospitality sector, which will be busy.”

It’s not just about digging around in dirt and kicking tractor tires, said Sinclair, who is also on the organizing committee.

Farmers have long been interested in new technology to help them be more productive and profitable, said the one-time adviser to provincial agriculture ministers in the Mike Harris government. That’s what happened with the global positioning satellites, which have proven so popular in cars and hand-held phones.

“They were using GPS units in farming before everybody else had them,” Sinclair said.

The last time Waterloo Region hosted the plowing match was in 1995, when it was held north of Ayr. Before that, it was 1954 — the year hurricane Hazel ripped across southern Ontario and flattened the match.

Usually, counties bid to host plowing matches five years in advance. The 2012 show wasn’t popular because everyone was looking to the centenary near Mitchell in 2013.

“The 2013 match will be a mile away from the farm where I grew up,” Sinclair said.

When nobody bid on 2012, the Ontario Plowman’s Association looked to North Dumfries Township, which has its own annual plowing match and people ready with experience from 1995. Taylor was a volunteer who planted stakes in fields for two weeks in that match, which turned a $314,000 profit.

“A lot of people from ’95, they’re pumped again,” Taylor said.

Taylor and Sinclair are looking for several hundred volunteers, along with service clubs. Skills from public relations to event management are needed on 28 committees organizing all aspects of the match.

“We need to fill them up if we’re going to do a good job,” Taylor said.

Email gordtaylor.2012@gmail.com if you’re interested.