After shocking weather had the crowds right down on the opening day of the Wimmera Machinery Field Days, numbers flocked in for the second two days of the region's premier event.
And while weather conditions were not ideal, with strong gusting winds, most found it an improvement on the searing conditions traditionally associated with 'field days time' at the start of March.
Farmers were by and large cautious with their spending, following a generally average to below average year for most in the field days' Wimmera-Mallee catchment.
But while most in attendance claimed their major expenditure for the day was lunch, there was strong inquiry in a number of fields.
The most dramatic increase came on the marketing front, where new marketers and brokers wooed growers.
With farmers getting their heads around marketing their wheat in a deregulated environment, they were eager to find out ways to best maximise their returns.
The concept of selling through a brokerage with access to a range of buyers was popular, with farmers commenting that they did not have the time to chase 25 buyers individually, while growers also took the time to get to know some of the smaller buyers now having a key role in the marketing world, such as SQP, Unigrain and Riordan Grain Services.
Technology was also hot property, with the GPS stands in the Alan Heard pavilion run off their feet on the second two days.
With the spectre of climate change a real concern in much of the northern Victorian grain belt, farmers are looking to reduce input costs as much as possible, and GPS products allow them to cut down on overlap.
Along with these benefits, which have been common knowledge for years, there is also now much more talk about second-generation precision agriculture products, such as yield mapping and variable rate technology.
Farmers have access to a wide range of data and are now starting to use that to make tangible benefits to their cropping operation.
