THE Henty Machinery Field Days cultivated a bumper crowd yesterday.
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Chairman Ross Edwards said a lot of confidence had been generated by the better season.
“Just talking to the number of exhibitors I have the mood as quite positive,” he said.
He also believed that the Governor-General, Quentin Bryce, had been a drawcard for the crowd.
“She’s a gracious and lovely lady and I believe the older people in the community appreciate her effort in coming to the field days and making it the day it was,” he said.
Exhibitors and visitors alike said it was the busiest Tuesday they’d experienced at the field days for many years but official figures were not available.
Agriculture has continued to advance during the drought and Mr Edwards believed the field days would play a role in farmers catching up.
“There’s quite a bit of interest in mother bins, in chaser bins, in augers and semi-tippers,” he said.
“People realise that with the coming harvest, the speed with which headers can take the grain off these days, they have to be able to deliver to the silos and storages to keep up with the headers.”
A multi-purpose wagon that can be used for feeding silage to livestock or as a chaser bin at harvest won the 2010 Westpac Machine of the Year Award.
The Fliegl Push Off Trailer System, distributed by New Zealand-based company Giltrap Ag Equipment, can be used with a multitude of attachments, including a grain bin that doubles as storage when not on the wagon.
The wagon can also be used to spread fertiliser or manure on paddocks and can be detached for use as a standard trailer on a prime mover.
Giltrap sales manager Warren Grose said the German-made machine had attracted plenty of interest from farmers seeking equipment that can be used all year round, rather than parked in the shed for the bulk of the time.
Highly commended in the awards was a local innovation — the Colossus metal baling machine designed and built by Cootamundra-based Gammon Metal Recycling.
Designed to make the recycling of farm scrap metal easier, the machine is one of the largest road registered balers in the world and is capable of crushing three tonne trucks, small headers and old farm machinery.
