Organisers of the Wimmera Machinery Field Days are viewing at the cancellation of the 2021 event with optimism, providing volunteers with a rare opportunity to reassess and build upon new ideas.
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Wimmera Machinery Field Days president Sam Eagle said the decision to cancel this years event was a big call to make, but the impact was lessened due to being able to host the event in 2020.
"Obviously we were really lucky last year because we had the last field day run," Mr Eagle said.
"Because we had a field day and we haven't had a huge financial loss if we went a planned another field day, and it got cancelled, that would be a waste of time.
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"I think everybody understood why we didn't run the field day, but I think that they were disappointed because it does being a lot of money into the community."
The decision to cancel 2021's field day was made in September last year.
Field day organiser Tim Rethus said the event was an excellent opportunity for farmers to meet face-to-face with agents and suppliers.
"It is a great social opportunity as well as a research opportunity, a lot of it is down to relationships and getting to meet people face-to-face which you can't do on the internet," Mr Rethus said.
"The other thing that you can't do on the internet is you can't go in a check quality of machinery and stuff like that. It's a really good thing to be able to get your hands dirty and see products in the field and get them explained to you.
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"It's a no-pressure environment, which you wouldn't get if you were in a shop."
Mr Eagle said the Field days committee is working on new ideas for the 2022 event.
"Hopefully we come back, we are starting to plan 2022 already. We are trying to work with our exhibitors and get some new ideas and attractions. Hoping to come back bigger and better in 2022," Mr Eagle said.
Mr Rethus said organisers had been conducting surveys and receiving feedback to work on making 2022 a pivotal return to form.
"It gives us an opportunity to rather than run from one field day to the next, gives us a bit of time to sit back and try and come up with a better and improved field day next year," Mr Rethus said.
"At this stage, nothing has been locked in yet. We are still going through the planning stages.
"It is hopefully going to be a revolutionary change from what we were doing before, there is going to be some significant improvements, hopefully from the point of view of the event targeting what we were doing before."
The Wimmera Machinery Field Days committee is working on modernising the event to fit with the modern agriculture industry's standards and expectations.
Mr Rethus said one of the pieces of feedback the field day received was around timing and schedules.
"What we are finding is that what we were doing twenty years ago is just not okay anymore. People are quite time-poor now, people don't have a lot of time to dedicate an entire week to an event," Mr Rethus said.
"That includes the farmers as well; farms are getting bigger, farmers a busier than they used to be. So you've got to compact it down, make it information-rich.
"Also, for the exhibitors, they bring in Melbourne representatives and get those high-quality reps down.
"For them, it can be too much to do the entire week. So we are figuring out how the time starts and what will be best for them."
Mr Rethus encouraged community service groups and public members to get in touch with ideas for the next field days.
"We want to let them know, at the moment we are in our planning phase, so this is the best time to speak. So get in touch with one of the committee members, we are always looking for young fresh faces with new ideas," he said.
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