ORGANISERS of the Wimmera Machinery Field Days have praised positive attitudes and large crowds at the 56th annual event.

Manager Murray Wilson said crowd numbers were up on last year.

“I went up in a helicopter twice to fly around the field days site and we looked at the aerial photos from last year compared with this year,” he said.

“The car park had a lot more rows of cars this year, which is evidence straight away that there was more people.

“We certainly saw that on Wednesday as well with family day.

“The volume of people coming through, particularly from families and school groups, was great.”

Mr Wilson said warm weather also helped boost numbers.

“Overall the weather was kind to us after a windy start on Tuesday,” he said. 

“The good weather makes people want to come along, stay longer and wander out further.”

Mr Wilson said there had been good feedback from exhibitors.

“There has been a lot of good enquiries,” he said.

“One machinery dealer I spoke to said he had only two enquiries on Tuesday, but on Wednesday afternoon, both those people came back and bought something,” he said.

“It just shows that two people can make someone’s field days experience super successful.”

Mr Wilson said the committee would now work towards cleaning up the site and planning for next year’s event.

“It will probably take about two or three weeks to clear the site, and we have a lot of community groups come out to help clean up,” he said.

“We will then have a meeting in April while the event is still fresh in our minds to talk about what worked and what didn’t.

“Change is always good as it keeps the event fresh. “

O’Connors Farm Machinery sales manager Tom Sheridan said crowd numbers were steady across the three days.

“People were generally pretty positive about the season,” he said.

“There was still a lot of people disappointed about the late frost last year, but overall most people were upbeat.”

Mr Sheridan said numbers were on par with other years.

He said most farmers came to the site to have a chat about new machinery.

“They also wanted to have a look at the market and see what was out there,” he said.

“We really enjoy being part of the field days each year.”