Tiia Shiels, 15, and her fellow agricultural students from Moama Anglican Grammar couldn’t walk past the Beloka Kelpie demonstration at the Elmore Field Days without passing up a cuddle with nine-week-old future working dog Ella. Ella was bred by Beloka Kelpies and may end up with a new home in Texas. Photos: Rechelle Zammit.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
Arguably the biggest event on the northern Victorian agricultural calendar, Elmore Field Days attracted crowds from near and far for its 62nd edition.
Good weather contributed towards a successful Elmore Field Days between October 7 and 9.
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Exhibitors from a range of industries converged at the Elmore Events Centre, delivering hundreds of displays, demonstrations and activities.
Among the offering were businesses specialising in machinery, irrigation, harvesting and silage, along with finance, planning, education and health.
Exhibitors raised the all-important topic of the weather, with Gary Gibson from Rochester’s Nelson Silos happy with this year’s sunny skies.
“Two years ago, it was 40 degrees,” he said.
“Another year it was so wet, it was just flooded, you basically had to stand on hay bales.
“This year’s probably the best weather, you can’t really complain.”
While the event is useful from a business perspective, McCullochs Hydraulics Engineers director Steve McCulloch also highlighted its social value.
“It's always a great social thing,” he said.
“We’ve got customers that come and have been dealing with my grandfather and then they come and see me and say g’day.
“It’s a great social outing for the farmers, they get to see all the new technology and then they get to go and speak to their old mates.”
The field days committee also announced the site would host two races in a national jet boat competition next year.
Construction work on the jet boat waterway is expected to start this month.
Elmore Field Days president John Giffin said the event would be another activity to fill the site calendar for the year and would most likely run the same weekend as the annual tractor pull.
John said this year’s field days was very successful, enjoyed clear weather and attracted a strong crowd estimated to be about 30,000.
The expanded Health Hub — sponsored by Fosterville gold mine company, Agnico Eagle Mines — was popular, with queues of people seeking free health checks, and the shearing shed was joined by charity Shearing for Kids with Cancer.
“We’ll look at doing something bigger with the Wanalta-based charity in the future,” John said.
Checking in with the machinery exhibitors, John said while there was steady inquiries, interest may have been affected by the toughening seasonal conditions.
He thanked the volunteers who were the backbone of the event and who numbered more than 500.
Volunteers nominate their club or charity to receive a share of the proceeds raised at the field days.
Bubbles and Farmer are ready to do their job for their boss, Paul Macphail, from Beloka Kelpies. They put on regular mustering demonstrations for the crowd.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
Sisters Tanae, 5, and Sienna Ovens, 2, of Bamawm, had their faces painted in their favourite colours.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
Wanalta's Katrina Ogden, the organiser of Shearing for Kids With Cancer, was raising money for the charity inside the shearing shed at the Elmore Field Days..
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
Elmore Field Days volunteers Mindy Murray, Ellie Hayes, Shirley Falconer, Mary Stroud and Michael Stroud. The catering division marshalls about 200 volunteers, generating 1500 person hours for the week. Proceeds raised go back to the community groups represented by the volunteers.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
Jack Geard, 4, from Brighton in Tasmania, is keen to try all of the machinery on show.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
Bubbles and Farmer, from Beloka Kelpies, demonstrate their sheep-handling abilities.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
Bendigo brothers George, 5, and Charlie Bickley, 9, with popcorn planted by the machine behind them, which is an early riser planter ER2110.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
Bendigo's Joshua Manassa, 7, learns about local geology from geologist Ryan Singh from Agnico Eagle Fosterville Bendigo.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
Elmore's Reece Cowan, 8, Nate O’Sullivan, 8, and Jimmy Hayes, 10, with Frankie Hay, 11, and Roy Whitfield, 10, from Hunter, near Elmore.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
Bendigo's Thomas Kennedy, 11, has fun on the huge Case IH Steiger 785 Quadtrac at the O’Connors stand at Elmore.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
Checking blood pressure at the St John of God stand in the Elmore Field Days Health Hub were nurse Denita Blackley with St John of God ICU liaison nurse Nicole Crameri.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
Lockington brothers Tyson, 9, and Brock Murphy, 11, try out the Case IH paddle tractors, which were up for grabs from the O’Connors exhibitors giveaway.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
Tanae Ovens, 5, of Bamawm, had her face painted in her favourite colours.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
Naneella and Elmore farmers and cousins Hamish Glass, Declan Miller and Austin Glass on a Kubota M7132 Premium KVT tractor on the Bertoli stand.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
Macey Watt, 4, with her dad Kris Watt from Bendigo, panning for gold.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
Hudson Ross, 7, from Bendigo, enjoyed a tour through the Royal Flying Doctors aircraft.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
Close friends from Australian Christian College Echuca, Kate Carroll, 14, and Hayley Wickham, 14, tried the face painting tent.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
This is the way to see the Elmore Field Days. William Jaeschke, 7, had his own battery-powered vehicle, complete with protective shade and trailer, thanks to his engineering dad, Adrian. Dad also held the steering remote control in case William got carried away. His four-year-old sister, Anna, had her own vehicle. The family was visiting from the Mallee.
Georgia Kennedy, 8, from the Blue Mountains, gets her face painted by Danielle Wilson from Bendigo.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
