Community
28 February, 2025
Field days set to expand
AGRICULTURAL field days are set to continue and expand in south-west Victoria after the resounding success of an inaugural event at Koroit last weekend.
The return of an agricultural field day at Koroit on Saturday has been hailed a huge success, attracting 55 exhibitors (more than double expectations) and plenty of interest from farmers across the region despite the hot weather.
The field day was part of the Koroit Show and coordinator Julie Houlihan said it had exceeded expectations.
“We’ve already got exhibitors asking to return next year,” Mrs Houlihan said.
“We will be reviewing it later, but at this stage we’re likely to expand to two days and hold the event on both Friday and Saturday next year.
“The feedback has been very positive.”
The field day fills a gap left by the Sungold Field Days that were last held at Allansford in 2020.
The event had run since 1981 and was recognised as the one of Victoria’s premier agricultural field days.
DemoDAIRY Foundation provided major support for the new event’s innovation technical presentations and workshops.
The workshops focused on cow tech and precision farming, including cow wearables, virtual fencing, use of drones in agriculture and effluent management technology.
DemoDAIRY Foundation deputy chair and local dairy farmer Chloe Brown said the foundation was proud to be part of the inaugural event.
“It has been a wonderful opportunity to showcase new technology and farm innovations to a diverse mix of farmers and industry providers,” Mrs Brown said.
“We were keen to support the reintroduction of an ag field day with an accompanying focus on technology and innovation and we look forward to continuing the partnership.”
This has been one of DemoDAIRY Foundation’s most significant projects.
The foundation agreed to contribute up to $30,000 so the field day could present and demonstrate new technologies available to assist dairy farmers and to show the opportunities for young people in the local dairy industry on farm and also with service providers.
The warm conditions also greeted exhibitors in the sheep section at the show.
Grassmere breeders Barry Shalders and Peter McDonald dominated the awards.
Shalders and his family, with their South Suffolk Willow Drive stud, took out the Group of Three, All Breed Rams and the Sheep of the Show.
They also exhibited a team of English Leicesters.
Peter McDonald’s Southdown Grassbank stud was awarded the All Breed Ewe of the Show title.
Chief sheep steward and committee member Phil Keane said that while the extreme weather conditions did have some impact on the overall entry numbers, the quality of sheep exhibits was outstanding.
“We can’t control the weather,” he said.
“It did impact the kids’ sideshow alley attractions, based on heat policy restrictions, and unfortunately the dog high jump also had to be cancelled because of the heat.
“Hopefully the public understood that some things were simply out of our control.
“Businesses supported the new field day concept, as did patrons (especially earlier in the day) so overall we were happy with our first event, giving us confidence looking ahead to an even bigger and better event next year.”
