Field days

On Wednesday 15th June we took a day off from the grandchildren to visit field days in Hamilton. We tried to blend in as well as we could - what a lot of farming types there were! (We noticed an almost complete lack of Maori) We wanted to buy a mower. the first stand as we entered was a mower stand, and so our search began. There was a huge range of agricultural machinery - just look at this paddock of tractors. And these were just the ones for people to try - there were heaps on the stands as well.

Waikato University is one of the main sponsors and so I had to record for Simon the Waikato stand where several scientists talked about the reasearch work they are doing. They were identified by the white coats and had  a very interested response.

Simon says this cow rear end normally lives in his office.

Of course every now and then we got diverted by food and wine displays, info on Perth (Heading there on July 21st), massaging back units and caravans. This one is so large it is basically a relocatable unit which would be very pleasant to live in.

But lets get back to the mower. By now we know we need a zero turn, steel fabricated (not moulded) with no or an adjustable roll bar, a service centre in Gisborne and good protection from flying macadamias. (See next BLOG). Duncan gets to try one out and the other three companies are promising us a trial on our own property next week.

We had in mind that we would need something like Todd uses at Ohiwa, and lo and behold, there are Todd and Nola. They  feel their mower needs replacing. They are going for a diesel one - oh dear we hadn't gone into petrol or diesel so we have to tramp back around them all and make further inquiries. By now we are starting to droop a bit and we decide to get away about 4 so we dont get held up by the 5 o'clock exodus. A very full day! but we learned heaps.