Farming smarter with technology
The National Fieldays is an annual fixture in the farming calendar: it draws in thousands of farmers, contractors, and industry professionals from across the country.
Hecton Products have been in the sheep handling business for more than 40 years now.
In fact, the company’s Sheep Handler and Weigh Crate products are common sights all around the country.
Hecton’s Sheep Handler has a reputation for speed and versatility.
Built for strength, it is the perfect unit for dagging, crutching, bellying, foot trimming, vaccinating, wool sampling, mouthing, eye wigging, loading of AI cradles – or any task requiring a sheep or goat to be mobilised on its side. Stock are held in a comfortable position during operation allowing full access to the underside of the animal, so no heavy lifting is required and operation is easy on the back.
The Hecton Sheep Handler is available in both air-operated and manual (no air required) versions.
The company is offering – for a limited time – a promotional price for its Weigh Crate.
Having multiple jobs to do on your flock does not necessarily mean you need more staff or help to do it. The Weigh Crate is a low cost, quality-build solution that can be simply added into your yards. The crate can be hard mounted into an existing sheep race in the woolshed or it can be mobile and added into temporary yards.
Hecton says the multipurpose product is ideal to use for tagging, drenching, mouthing, vaccinating and drafting.
By adding load bars, you can also weigh your stock.
The product is modular, additional components can be added at any stage to include dagging and ring crutching capability.
Federated Farmers president Wayne Langford says the 2025 Fieldays has been one of more positive he has attended.
A fundraiser dinner held in conjunction with Fieldays raised over $300,000 for the Rural Support Trust.
Recent results from its 2024 financial year has seen global farm machinery player John Deere record a significant slump in the profits of its agricultural division over the last year, with a 64% drop in the last quarter of the year, compared to that of 2023.
An agribusiness, helping to turn a long-standing animal welfare and waste issue into a high-value protein stream for the dairy and red meat sector, has picked up a top innovation award at Fieldays.
The Fieldays Innovation Award winners have been announced with Auckland’s Ruminant Biotech taking out the Prototype Award.
Following twelve years of litigation, a conclusion could be in sight of Waikato’s controversial Plan Change 1 (PC1).
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