Four of the many people who have made the Henty Machinery Field Days a success over the decades cut the cake celebrating the event’s 60th birthday: Barry Scholz; Neil Bahr; Bryson Terlich, and Kerry Pietsch.
HENTY Machinery Field Days is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year as the premier showcase for innovation in cropping and livestock in southern New South Wales.
Officially opening the three-day event yesterday was Kotzur managing director Andrew Kotzur, representing the family company based at nearby Walla Walla which has been exhibiting at Henty since the inaugural event was held at the Henty showground.
In his address, HMFD chair Nigel Scheetz acknowledged the dry season, and the role practices and equipment as displayed at the event play in supporting agriculture.
“We must not forget how innovative and resilient we are,” Mr Scheetz said.
The coveted Machine of the Year award went to machinery dealership network Hutcheon & Pearce, which this year is celebrating its 70th anniversary as a family-owned business, for the GUSS autonomous orchard sprayer.
The Highly Commended award went to Shepherd Ag’s Auto Feedlot Drafter, and the best new Australian designed and built agricultural machine was won by a Wodonga-based engineering firm AusMIX for its feed mixer.
The unit is mainly used by dairy and beef cattle producers needing precise measures of grain, silage and hay, and manufacture of it started when COVID slowed machinery imports.
HMFD last year set an attendance record of 70,000, and strong support from the region’s schools and government departments, as well as farming families and agricultural businesses, could well see that broken this year.
The event includes lifestyle and textile exhibits, including the Natural Fibre Awards to be announced tomorrow.
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- Upton Engineering principal Carl Upton with some of the tractors the business built in the 1970s. The company’s HT 14/350 was the world’s largest two-wheel drive tractor and still is.
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- Baker Seed Co business development and sales manager Aaron Giason with a plot of LongReach Major wheat in the HMFD trial site.
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- Matilda Hicks and father Scott talk harvesting gear with MacDon sales manager Kari Sattler, Albury, and MacDon manager David Rudolph, Melbourne
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- Kotzur managing director Andrew Kotzur offiicially opened the 2023 Henty event and is pictured with Matong farmer Rod Hatty who bought his first Kotzur silo in the 1960s.
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- AusFarm Nutrition Product’s Savannah Kelly, Wantabadgery, clinches a sale with Bredbo grazier Jacob Corkhill at the Henty Machinery Field Days with (from left) Ed Dunlop, Canberra, John McMahon, Cooma, Harry Corkhill, Chakola, and Angus Patterson, Wantabadgery.
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- David and Charles Kingston, The Rock, with CropSmart’s Yarrawonga-based sales reps Darren Sharples and Haydyn Kennedy.
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- Trimble Jerilderie-based operations manager Brad Parker with wife Michelle and their children Indie and Blake, and Michelle’s parents Pete and Jan Horneman, Finley.
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- Mark Ivanoff of Ivanoff Farming, Grong Grong, with SproutAg partners George Last, Wagga Wagga, Troy Constance, Yass, and Charlie Wythes, Hay.
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- Lockhart grower Tim Blackadder checks out augers on offer at the Advantec display stand with sales and marketing manager Zoe Shepherd and director Nathan McGrath.
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- Tefco sales manager Duncan Townsend and Peter Hornery of Ivanoff Farming, Grong Grong.
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- Brett Habeck, Rutherglen, and nephew Hamish Kenny check out a John Deere tractor on the Hutcheon & Pearce stand.
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- Steele Steel West Wyalong owner Dan Draper talks feeders and groupers with Glenn and Jeff Hargreaves, Boweya.
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- Henty Machinery Field Days committee chair Nigel Scheetz (right) with Peter Wallace, Wagga Wagga, who before retirement farmed at Tarcutta and Tallimba.
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- Hutcheon & Pearce celebrated its 70th anniversary at the 2023 Henty Machinery Field Days, and also won Machine of the Year with the GUSS autonomous orchard sprayer. Pictured are sales and marketing manager Andrew Watt, integrated solutions manager Hamish Ross and CEO Arron Hutcheon.
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