Close to 20,000 people enjoyed their time exploring hundreds of exhibits while having a ball with friends and family at the highly successful 27th running of the Emerald Ag-Grow Field Days held from July 7-9.
Ag-Grow Emerald Field Days managing director Jeff Dein said the general vibe over the course of the event was very positive.
“You can sense that confidence is returning in the region’s agricultural industries especially in cattle, and grain were prices are way up, which is creating a lot of buoyancy in our main demographic,” Mr Dein said.
He said in general exhibitors enjoyed a successful field days experience, with big ticket items such as harvesters and tractors selling especially well.
“We had close to 300 exhibitors on site this year which is up on 2015, and over the course of the three days we locked in 40 new exhibitors for 2017, based solely off the buzz generated around the grounds,” he said.
A plethora of events were held concurrently with the field days including the Westpac Superior Beef Bull Sale; Premier Invitation Horse Sale; Working Cattle Dog trials and sale; fashions parades and live entertainment, which gave visitors plenty to do and see each day.
Interactive activities including ATV and drone demonstrations were also held over all three days of the field days and drew impressive crowds.
Mr Dein said the Ag-Grow committee is constantly striving to make the field days a better experience for visitors, which was evidenced by the opening of the Woolshed Coffee House and Bar this year, which proved to be a smashing success with field day goers.
“We constructed the building in eight days using original seams from a local shearing shed and mixed Australian hardwood’s for the floors and designed it off a genuine shearing shed with double doors where they’d normally load the wool bales and we elevated it off the ground.
“We decorated it using antique items from the surrounding area including a four-stand shed, droppers, tumblers, a wool press and scales.
“It has been booked out through the end of the year for weddings, Christmas parties,political meetings and other various functions.”
He said there has been extensive work done in and around the horse and cattle grounds as well.
“We’ve done landscaping around the stud bull area; the stud bull enclosure has been revamped with new equipment including automatic filling water troughs for cattle, a shade cloth for their comfort, and water tanks to keep moisture away from ring.
“Around the horse arena we’ve done a lot of landscaping and constructed several themed buildings with a view to moving forward to more extensive work in that section for next year.”
A full report from the 2016 Ag-Grow Emerald Field Days will appear in the July 21 edition.
