Brisk start at Wandin-Silvan

SOLD stickers on tractors at the Wandin-Silvan Field Days was a show of confidence by growers.

Darren McIntyre with son Noah

SOLD stickers on tractors at the Wandin-Silvan Field Days was a show of confidence by growers.

Factory direct importer SOTA Tractors sold an Apollo 354 to a customer soon after the gates opened on Friday.

SOTA's Victorian manager, Paul Gration, said the buyer was after a slightly different model than the machines on display but signed up for the new machine regardless.

A neighbouring exhibitor on the back oval at Wandin East Recreation Reserve had pre-sold a red tractor and a green tractor before the field days and both were on display last week.

Agco dealer Darmac Ag had recently sold a Massey Ferguson 4000 series row-crop tractor to a strawberry grower and a Fendt 209 Vario tractor to an orchardist. The new owners saw them for the first time at the two-day event.

Darmac Ag owner Darren McIntyre said the three-cylinder MF 4609 Massey Ferguson tractor was built in Japan and the model on show last week was fitted with row-crop wheels for Coldstream berry grower Michael Pettinella, of the Fresh Berry Company.

Mr McIntyre gave him the keys to the cabin on Friday afternoon, explaining the transmission and discussing the 550mm ground clearance, which will be achieved by removing the drawbar and towbar.

Mr Pettinella said he grew strawberries and tomatoes on about 20ha at Coldstream.

Darmac Ag, a relatively new dealer of Agco tractor brands, sold its first model of the German-built Fendt tractor this month.

The Fendt 209 Vario was sold to Wandin East orchardist Peter Chapman after an on-farm trial of a Fendt machine.

Mr McIntyre began selling farm machinery as an offshoot of his tractor and machinery repairs business three years after he began working from a shed on his parents' former cherry orchard at Seville.

The Darmac Ag workshop and showroom he moved into at Silvan is surrounded by orchards and berry farms.

"We're close to everything," Mr McIntyre said. "There's a strawberry grower we can see from our workshop and a lot of farmers drive their tractors or mowers to us."

Mr McIntyre claimed the best presented heavy machinery exhibit at the Wandin-Silvan Field Days for the third straight year.

His stand also showed Can-Am all-terrain vehicles from North American manufacturer BRP, Dixon mowers, Spitwater high-pressure water cleaners, Iseki, Massey Ferguson and Fendt tractors, as well as Hardi sprayers, a dealer arrangement Darmac Ag picked up in June.

Other visitors to the field days last week included delegates to the BerryQuest conference, which was hosted at Mooroolbark by Strawberries Australia, Raspberries and Blackberries Australia and the Australian Blueberry Growers Association.

Dan Peach, the chairman of the Blueberries New Zealand Inc, was touring orchards in the area with a group of other berry growers when they stumbled on the field days.

Mr Peach, who grows blueberries at his Oakberry Farms business in Hamilton on the North Island and also exports and packs for Driscolls, was looking at spraying equipment on the Agpower site.

He sat in the cabin of a South Korean-built all-in-one 1000-litre orchard sprayer assembled by Hanseo for Croplands, the South Australian spray equipment manufacturer, which is owned by chemicals giant Nufarm.

WANDIN SILVAN AWARD WINNERS

• Best Presented Stand - Heavy Machinery: Darmac Ag
• Silvan Best Presented Stand - Light Equipment: Rural Fence and Trade
• Coldstream President's Award: Glenmac, Lilydale
• Best Presented Stand - General Interest: Top of the Range Nurseries
• Best Innovation Award: Hillbilly Camping
• Best Machinery and Equipment Award: Agpower
• Open Photographic Competition: Anita Mackay