SIAFD knocks it out of the park!
While the temperature was struggling to reach about 5 degrees and the horizontal hail had enough grunt to slice cheese, the SIAFD committee knocked it out of the park by delivering another great event.
Organising committee chairman Alastair Robinson says turnout was greater than expected. “We aimed to have more than 25,000 and our preliminary entry receipts show we had 27,655, not including exhibitors or children.”
Robinson is pleased with how well the field days came together, considering all its infrastructure had to be developed in the short time between site takeover in November and the opening.
Best site awards recognised exhibitors’ many efforts.
The large site award went to Lely Center Ashburton, which featured robotic milking; Isuzu Utes NZ and Cochranes won second and third prizes, respectively.
Small site awards went to Tyremax LP, AdvanceQuip NZ and RD Petroleum.
Machinery demonstrations, always a major draw at SIAFD, were again very popular with the crowds.
Origin Agroup won the best demo award the range they exhibited throughout the event and for their professional commentary.
The Agri-Innovation awards were another highlight, enabling entrants to demonstrate their inventions and technological innovations. There were three categories.
Patrick Roskam (17) won the top award for the best farm tool or farm aid invention with his Gudgeon Pro 5-in-1 gate hanger; best New Zealand-made invention went to Coolsense for its Vari-Cool fast cooling system for milk; and the award for the best imported machine went to the Shelbourne Powerspread muck spreader exhibited by Toplink Machinery.
The next SIAFD at Kirwee will be on March 29-31, 2017.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
