Community
2 May, 2025
Field days to expand next year
THE Koroit Ag Field Days will return and expand in 2026, with organisers confirming they will stage a two-day event on a larger site.
The field days will be held on February 20-21 at the Koroit showgrounds, with extra land to be added to the mix.
The annual horse show will return to its traditional show date in November, allowing more field day and show activities on the oval.
There are also plans to run a dairy cow competition and DemoDAIRY Foundation has agreed to support another series of innovation seminars.
The inaugural Koroit Ag Field Day in February was hailed a success.
It was designed to fill a gap left by the end of the Sungold Field Days at Allansford in 2020.
Field days coordinator Julie Houlihan said the response to this year’s event as part of the Koroit Show had exceeded expectations.
“This year was a bit of a trial to fill a gap and to see if there was demand,” Mrs Houlihan said.
“The exhibitors were really enthused about the number of people coming through the gates and the response they got, but most thought it was a lot of work to do for just one day. They thought it was a goer but would prefer two days.
“We had nearly 60 exhibitors this year and probably knocked back 15 to 20 and they all say they want to come back.”
Traditional show events like poultry, sheep, flowers and cooking will be held over the two days but Mrs Houlihan said it was too hard to run the event with horses on the oval.
“We only had a relatively small area to fill so didn’t advertise it too widely, but we’ve already been fielding calls for next year and this time there will be more space.”
The introduction of a dairy cow section during the field days is likely to attract more interest.
“There aren’t many dairy cow shows around at the moment so we think there will be a lot of interest from farmers who like to show their cattle,” Mrs Houlihan said.
There are plans to establish a field day organising committee, including exhibitors, community groups and supporters.
The show committee has also applied for a federal government grant to boost the event.
DemoDAIRY Foundation provided major support for the 2025 event’s innovation technical presentations and workshops.
Deputy chair and local dairy farmer Chloe Brown said the foundation was keen to support the reintroduction of an ag field day with a focus on technology and innovation and looked forward to continuing the partnership.
