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    ALL FUN: Libby Price and her artificial cow moment during one of her many visits to a field day.

AG LIFE Wimmera Machinery Field Days: Mark your ‘MCO’ stands

Thinking about going to the Wimmera Machinery Field Days and perhaps thinking farm machinery ain’t my thang?

Well think again. Prepare yourself for a magical mystery tour that will unveil all number of surprises.

I broadcast from my first field day in 1986. It was a hot August day at Dowerin in Western Australia’s wheat belt.

I was a young pup and it was my first live outside broadcast. 



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I still have a cassette tape of it – Google if you don’t know what that is – labelled in red pen ‘DOWERIN DISASTER’ and I still haven’t been able to listen back to it all these years later. It was an unmitigated disaster. 

So it took me some time to warm up to the idea of going to another field day.

Fast forward a decade or so and I found myself at a dairy field day at Poowong in South Gippsland.

I know, you’re thinking the same as I was at the time: with a name like that things have to go wrong. But they didn’t and I’ve been a field day devotee ever since.

What I’ve learned is, you have to have a plan. 

So get out that field day map and mark the MCOs; the Must Check Out stands. 

For me, they are fashion, gardening and animals. They tend to be roughly in the same area most years. 

Elmore Field Days were my go-to for buying tomato plants until my garden was invaded with fruit fly. 

Sheepvention is my ‘find a garden ornament’ field day. I’m the proud owner of the most stunning bird feeders from there and the very first day I put out the parrot seed, King parrots arrived in my garden. 

I’ll often have four pairs at a time gutsing themselves on sunflower seeds. 

The added bonus is the seeds that fall to the ground and germinate. I now have the sunniest sunflowers in my garden that are so wonderfully cheerful.

The other ‘highly recommended’ is some of the natural health remedy stands. 

I’m a convert to using turmeric tablets for my arthritis, or ‘Arthur Writus’ as my nanna dubbed it. 

And so to the animals. Wimmera has a fantastic sheep-shearing display. I could sit all day and watch shearing.

That wonderfully peaceful place of sitting doing bugger all while someone works their guts out. Just my kind of spectator sport.

There’s usually the odd pen of strange sheep breeds and if you’ve planned well, a good working dog demonstration.

If you’re up for it, there’s even a snake pit. Personally something I’d avoid, but all to their own.

But my all-time field day favourite goes to Henrietta the artificial dairy cow at the recent Sungold Field Days. Well actually, only half a cow: the back half. 

Henrietta was made from fibreglass with a window in her belly revealing all her girly bits in rubbery splendour.

Her purpose is to train potential artificial inseminators in the dubious art of bovine fallopian, feeling through, yes, her rubber rectum.

There I was elbow deep in a fake cow’s bowel groping her fake ovaries. 

And that is where I’ll leave you with the image of how much fun a field day can be.

The entire February 26, 2020 edition of The Weekly Advertiser is available online. READ IT HERE!

The entire February 26,, 2019 edition of AgLife is available online. READ IT HERE!