F I E L D D AY S S E C T I O N
Wimmera Machinery Field Days This year was the 52nd annual Wimmera Machinery Field Days event and after a slow start due to extreme heat it finished on a high. The event was at the purpose built Longrenong grounds just outside Horsham, Victoria. “Not a lot of people,” said Brenton Elsom, sales and product development Southern Precision, on the first day of the event. He was sure though it would improve, and it did. Southern Precision was established in Naracoorte, South Australia in 2006 and sells products in the precision agriculture and spraying fields. “It’s hard work because there’s only three people at Southern and two are here. The boss at the end of the day still has to write up quotes,” he said. Field days manager Murray Wilson was sure the event would improve as conditions for subsequent days were forecast to be milder. He was on hand to present the annual show awards on Wednesday afternoon in the shade behind the administration building. Agricultural exhibition award winners: • Machine of the Year: Harrington Seed Destructor (De Bruin Engineering, Mount Gambier, South Australia) • Ag Innovation of the Year: Scout UAV (GPS Ag, Kangaroo Flat, Victoria) • Best Outdoor Machinery Site: O’Connors Farm Machinery (Horsham-Birchip-BordertownCorowa-Shepparton-Warracknabeal) • Best Indoor Agribusiness Site: Philmac (Plympton, South Australia) • Best New Exhibitor Site: Boss Engineering (Inverell, NSW) • Best Livestock Site: Koonik Dohne Stud (Koonik, Victoria). Boss Agriculture’s Dave Herbert accepted the award for Best New Exhibitor Site on behalf of his company and said he was very pleased with the event. His stand had seen a steady flow of people and he said the TX 65 unit that
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Dave Herbert of Boss Engineering, which won the Best New Exhibitor award. is towed behind a seed cart had attracted a lot of attention as it suited northern crops with wide rows. Boss’ TX 65 series of parallelogram tyne planting units offer a 650lb breakout on the tyne trip and a 1”x2” planting tyne to open the widest planting window while maintaining accuracy and low disturbance. All pressure and depth adjustments can be done with pins. A coulter disc set-up allows growers to get through trash and the frame, called SupaFlex, has been designed for work in contoured or undulating country. De Bruin Engineering featured at Wimmera, winning the Machine of the
Year award. AFDJ first caught up with De Bruin general manager John Millhouse at Elmore in 2013 where the company was showing its Harrington Seed Destructor. We ran a feature on the machine in the November 2013 edition. At Wimmera, Millhouse was very enthusiastic about winning the top award and the event overall. He has been doing the rounds with the machine and it is paying dividends. “It [Harrington Seed Destructor] was invented by a farmer in Western Australia called Ray Harrington,” said Millhouse. Harrington began developing the
The award presentations were held during the afternoon of the second day.
AUSTRALASIAN FARMERS’ & DEALERS’ JOURNAL - MAY 2014