Organisers: Future positive

Organisers of Mallee Machinery Field Days are confident of the event’s future on the agricultural calendar.

The Speed Lions Club fundraiser will lose a few long-standing exhibitors and sponsors this year, though attendance numbers and interest are expected to carry through.

Former club president Kevin Emonson said continuing exhibitor interest and support was a strong indicator that the Field Days would maintain its position as a major agricultural event.

“There’s no sort of reason at this stage it wouldn’t continue, because we don’t have to go chasing exhibitors,” he said.

“People come to us. We don’t have to go out and get them interested, so I think that is a bit of a pat on the back.”

The two-day showcase attracts about 3500 to 4000 people each day, and features, on average, more than 300 exhibits, from tools and hardware to arts and crafts, as well as finance and brokering services.

Despite visitor decline in previous years, committee secretary Andrew Mclean said there was always an aim to reach or beat past attendance numbers.

“Numbers are down a bit in the past

couple of years,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s from declining population, but we have a lot of interstate visitors and a pretty positive reputation with local farmers.

“We are always aiming for 3500 to 4000 people a day, or above.

“But it can depend on the weather. If the weather is too good people will be too busy spraying, but if it’s bad, it’s too wet.”

Mr Mclean said while some exhibitors had pulled out because of a lack of staff to man sites, large and undercover sites had filled quickly, particularly by regulars such as O’connors.

With enquiries already being made for a 2020 Field Days, Mr Mclean said exhibitors’ ongoing support created a promising future.

“Some people have pulled out this year such as Breuers United Tools, which will be their first time in something like 35 years they haven’t been there, so hopefully they’ll be back next year,” he said.

“William Adams has also pulled out, but some of their machinery will still be on other sites.

“The major sites will be O’connors, Belle-vue Trading and Sunrise Ag.

“They are probably the biggest consumers of our sites, and we’ve had quite a few that have been here for a hell of a long time.”

Mr Mclean said there had been greater interest in larger sites in recent years.

He said the committee had considered extending the event in response but said doing so could spread profits too thinly between exhibitors and potentially detract from the event’s focus.

“We’ve thought about extending for more sites, but it means we’re consuming parking area, and then you need the manpower from the volunteers to do it all,” he said.

“We don’t allow every person to have a site. If we had applications online on the site, we would have too many.

“We’re trying to keep it as an agricultural-machinery-focused event.”