There haven’t been many opportunities for farmers and rural contractors to be able to properly test various brands of equipment in a working environment, before they make a purchase, but a Waikato-based trade event is changing that.
Now in its third year of operation, Grasslandz 2016 (Jan 28,29) is a rurally-based agricultural machinery and equipment trade show, where prospective buyers can actually try out various European, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese brands on offer (conditions apply), before they commit to buy.
The event attracts both first and second tier machinery and equipment providers, and allows farmers and rural contracting buyers who might never consider non-Japanese or non-European products, to get behind the steering wheel of a Chinese or Korean competitor to see how well these brands perform in rural applications.
Unlike other trade events for the agricultural sector, where exhibitors can only hold static displays, Grasslandz is a fully interactive event, with six hubs centred around diggers and loaders, agronomy, fencing, effluent and irrigation, an ATV showcase, and a stock feeding and animal nutrition hub, as well as a business alley.
The various agricultural hubs – such as the diggers and loaders hub, and the effluent hub – are designed to streamline demonstration activities in an ideal environment for the target audience.
For example, a prospective customer could take an effluent tanker to fill up from the effluent pond and then spread it around a designated area, and exhibitors also have the ability to use their sites to demonstrate seeding, cultivation, and harvesting, as well as having a site covered in silage quality grass or stubble to demonstrate their equipment in action.
Last year more than 4000 to 5000 visitors attended Grasslandz, and the organisers say they expect more will pass through the gates in January 2016 thanks to the new hub concept.
NZ Trucks Hamilton branch manager, Peter Goodwin, is one of the key supporters behind the digger and loaders hub, and he is also one of the main organisers of the now annual tractor pull competition, which has proven very popular with showgoers.
Goodwin says the tractor pull completion is purely about fun, but he says Grasslandz offers rural contractors and “cocky” contractors, the ability to try diggers and loaders from brands they may not have considered before.
“There is far more of a business approach being taken by farmers, as their farms have grown in size and they have made the investment in large and expensive machinery and equipment that can be used on the property when needed, and then contracted out when not needed on farm, for a better return on their capital investment,” says Goodwin.
Grasslandz will be held on a more than 14-hectare site (near the McFarlane Contractors yard) at Eureka, beside State Highway 26 (Morrinsville Road), on January 28 and 29, 2016.
