VIDEO featuring Joe and Charlie Maher, JOMA Equine; Tom Coggan, Coggan Farms; Christiaan le Roux, C-Lock Australia; Hunter Laneyrie, Gritline ATVs and Ciaran Gentry, Australian Cattle Backrubs. 

WHAT can you do with 26 hectares near Toowoomba? Maybe run 30 or 40 steers, grow about 100 tonnes of wheat in an average season, or have about 15 games of cricket simultaneously.

Or, you could hold an agricultural field day with more than 750 individual exhibitors featuring the latest technology, equipment, machinery, inputs and even farm fashion over three days each June.

It’s been a strategy that has worked for FarmFest field days at Kingsthorpe just west of the Garden City for 51 years, now firmly entrenched as Queensland’s largest agricultural field days, with over 37,000 visitors streaming into this year’s event, matching the crowd at last year’s special 50th anniversary celebration.

Earlier this year the outlook for rural events had been looking somewhat uncertain with a prolonged dry spell gripping Southern Queensland and northern New South Wales and the Strait of Hormuz closure pushing fuel and fertiliser prices to previously unseen heights.

However widespread rain in late autumn rain and recent kicks in cattle, sheep and wool markets and reasonably healthy grain prices helped to set a scene of positivity across this year’s three-day FarmFest field day.

“Positivity was the word – so many people said it just had a really positive vibe to it this year,” Craig Chapman, General Manager ACM Agri Events, told Beef Central at the end of this year’s event.

On-farm efforts to mitigate the effects of higher fuel and fertiliser costs this year were among the factors shaping product offerings and attendee interest at FarmFest 2026, with many hybrid or fully electric vehicles on display, and a significant presence of large drones.

Mr Chapman said the new addition of a designated drone demonstration area proved popular with field day goers.

“It enabled really good conversations about drone capabilities,” he said. “A lot of the pitches were around efficiencies and being more accurate with spraying.

“With the price of inputs going up, it makes a lot of sense to reduce the amount of inputs being used.”

All Electric ATVs

Among the fuel-efficient farm vehicles turning heads at FarmFest 2026 was a set of fully electric Tuatara side-by-sides on the stand of Gritline ATVs, which has outlets in Toowoomba and Bathurst.

Hunter Laneyrie from Gritline said the single and dual battery models had charging times of five to eight hours, and with steel builds, rugged frames and tipper trailers, were designed for farming and mining applications.

He said they were seeing a lot of demand for electric versions over petrol amidst the higher fuel prices, with around 300 now operating around Australia.

Back rubs filling fly-control gap after Diazanon exit

Another site attracting attention from beef cattle producers at FarmFest was Australian Cattle Backrubs (AC Backrubs). The self-oiling paddock rubs remain one of the primary defences against buffalo fly for cattle producers following the removal of Diazanon-based treatment products from the Australian market by the APVMA last year.

Ciaran Gentry from AC Back Rubs said the rubs are manufactured for fly control in all livestock including cattle and horses.

He said a three-metre back rub equipped with a 20 litre overhead drum can service 100 head of cattle at a time for about eight weeks.

“You pre-soak the back rub, hang it about hip height, the cattle pass underneath it and the oil transfers from the back rub onto the beast,” he said.

In effect the cattle treat themselves by continuing to return to the rub as often as they need to.

This year’s field day featured another first by bringing a Rural Press Club of Queensland lunchtime networking event to the Wednesday program featuring speakers Tim Neale and Meg Kummerow.