{"id":1778,"date":"2011-08-22T12:35:21","date_gmt":"2011-08-22T02:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/?p=1778"},"modified":"2017-07-24T17:59:00","modified_gmt":"2017-07-24T07:59:00","slug":"agquip-gunnedah-nsw-australias-largest-agricultural-field-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/agquip-gunnedah-nsw-australias-largest-agricultural-field-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Agquip, Gunnedah (NSW) – Australia’s largest agricultural field day"},"content":{"rendered":"

As is apparently the case in all but the very worst drought years, it rained at Agquip<\/a>\u00a0last week – in\u00a0 fact there was also a bit of hail on the last day.\u00a0\u00a0But like most agricultural field days, rain\u00a0has a beneficial\u00a0affect on visitation\u00a0and sales.\u00a0\u00a0Only an absolute deluge like that received at Agquip 2010, causes running headaches (last year, cars did get bogged – but that’s a rarity).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Agquip has run since 1973 and is Australia’s largest agricultural\u00a0field day.\u00a0 More than 100,00 people visit Agquip over the 3 days, with 60% travelling more than 200km to attend – and many coming from hundreds or thousands of kilometres away.\u00a0\u00a0Part of the enjoyment of the visit for me was seeing how amazingly well it is run.\u00a0 Well formed roads, good signposting, heaps of rubbish bins and toilets, a heavy parcel pickup service and plenty of places to sit down and give the feet a well earned rest.\u00a0 And with no public transport but \u00a0thousands of people heading off in cars after the 5pm close it would be reasonable to expect a traffic jam of monumental proportions.\u00a0\u00a0 But no, traffic snakes away from the Agquip site albeit at a slow pace for the first 10km out the other side of town, but with hardly a single halt.\u00a0 Traffic-directing people man\u00a0every\u00a0potential log-jam site\u00a0(intersections and roundabouts etc), and everyone pokes away calmly.\u00a0 All are polite, except for the very occasional person who thinks they’re special…such as a Tamworth tractor dealership driver who\u00a0sped past us on the left and cut in front, in the midst of a vehicle queue stretching for many\u00a0kilometres. (A tip for this bloke – if you can’t restrain the urge to be\u00a0ignorant in a vehicle, at least be smart enough to refrain while driving a vehicle with a business name written on it.\u00a0 We had a good laugh at the sheer futility of his stupidity.)<\/p>\n

In Agquip 2011 almost 3,000 companies were represented across more than 1,800 trade stands.\u00a0 The trial crop area is 76 hectares and parking area 20 hectares.\u00a0 The actual trade site area\u00a0is 26 hectares and walking the exhibits from A to Z is a dedicated exercise that can only be achieved in one day if few stops are made – two days are required to get around the lot if you’re spending hours poking through the many tool sites, dealerships etc – especially if you’re haggling over purchases.\u00a0\u00a0 Due to the huge distance it’s not ideal for young kids unless you do as many did, and buy a wheelbarrow or cart early in the day, and load the kids up.\u00a0\u00a0 The elderly cruise around in one of the many golf carts owned by the Nationals, or a rental cart.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When it comes to agricultural machinery – if it exists, it will be on display somewhere at Agquip.\u00a0 Trade displays are interspersed with other things such as cattle weight guessing competitions, Land Inventor of the Year finalists, paraglider flights, remote controlled crop spraying helicopters and fencing competitions.\u00a0 The standard price for one of the tenderest and best value\u00a0steak sandwiches ever eaten is $7 – whether from the Murray Grey stand, Angus, Shorthorn or any other breed.<\/p>\n

The ‘clever marketing’ prize (unofficially awarded – by me) for this year’s Agquip\u00a0was shared jointly by a company selling inflated green men, lifted aloft by bunches of helium balloons – and the University of New England (UNE), where UNE students spent hours putting green UNE-logoed plaster casts on the arms of scores of kids.<\/p>\n

Entry is free for all visitors because the running of the field day is paid for by sponsors and exhibitors.\u00a0 Exhibiting isn’t cheap, however\u00a0the cost is\u00a0similar\u00a0to what is charged\u00a0at equivalent events, such as the tri-ennial Beef Expo in Rockhampton and annual Equitana (horse expo) in Melbourne and Sydney.<\/p>\n

Agquip is heaven for anyone who has an interest in machinery and\/or farming, and the running of it is a credit to the Gunnedah community.\u00a0 Next year will be the 40th anniversary of Agquip – 21st, 22nd & 23rd August 2012.\u00a0\u00a0 Here’s hoping for\u00a0a run of good seasons for the Australian farming sector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As is apparently the case in all but the very worst drought years, it rained at Agquip\u00a0last week – in\u00a0 fact there was also a bit of hail on the last day.\u00a0\u00a0But like most agricultural field days, rain\u00a0has a beneficial\u00a0affect on visitation\u00a0and sales.\u00a0\u00a0Only an absolute deluge like that received at Agquip 2010, causes running headaches […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,6,12,66],"tags":[82,164,220],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1778"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1778"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5971,"href":"https:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1778\/revisions\/5971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}