Sunny start to South Island Agricultural Field Days

Those competitions on day one included the Agri-Innovations Awards, showcasing the latest and most inventive solutions to farm problems and tasks offered by a range of established and start up technology companies.

This year’s Agri-Innovation winner award went to Marlborough company Repost that takes vineyard posts and repurposes them for other fencing applications, saving thousands of tonnes of timber from landfill.

Repost took out the top award with its portable hydraulic nail puller, developed specifically for pulling nails from vineyard posts. The second prize was awarded to Rakaia based Plucks Engineering for its Hose Runner, a towable device that can lay or wind up 300 meters of 20mm alkathene hose in only minutes.

The winners take home $1000 and $500 each from the South Island Field Days Society. They were among 17 entrants in the competition that included devices and technology as varied as a nanobubble agritech pivot system, to a towable road grader machine for farm raceways.

There’s a vast range of agricultural equipment at this year’s event including the active demonstrations site encompassing the range of heavy equipment for pulling, digging, sowing, cultivating and spraying on today’s farms.

Dedicated hard work from the voluntary committee means the demonstration site is well established and gives a real-world impression of how the equipment performs.

Demonstrations manager Tim Wilson says the demonstration were well attended, pointing to the wide range of equipment in action including, CLAAS mowers, Krone and New Holland balers, Great Plains Spartan drills and Bednar disks.

Recognising the shift in agri tech to the skies, this year’s Field Days also incorporates the latest in drone technology, with a chance to witness the precision and scale the next generation agri drones can provide.

Day two on Thursday promises to deliver plenty of action for farmers, visitors and children alike.

The New Zealand fencing competition will be running all day with the South Island Doubles competition.

For anyone keen to get a closer look at telehandlers, the Farm Trader Showcase event at lunchtime will be featuring the machines, followed by farm trailers at 2pm.

“Today shows that the South Island Agricultural Field Days is bigger and better than ever, meaning we are able to cover the entire sector with something for everyone. Attendees won’t be disappointed” says Field Days committee chair Andrew Stewart.



Click here for more details on the South Island Agricultural Field Days events and demonstrations