Mingenew Midwest Expo: Display awards showcase very best exhibitors

Seven major awards were handed out to exhibitors at this year’s McIntosh and Son Mingenew Midwest Expo, in recognition of the exceptional standard on display. A canola oil producer, a machinery dealership, a livestock equipment supplier, a global wind turbine supplier and a road safety organisation were just some of exhibitors to scoop the coveted awards at the 41st expo. The judges had no easy task, with more than 200 displays at the two-day event on August 8 and 9. BEST MACHINERY DEALER DISPLAY: McIntosh & Son It was a delight for newly appointed McIntosh & Son Geraldton branch manager Josh McBeath to accept the award for best machinery display, particularly as the business has represented the naming rights sponsor of the event for many years. Mr McBeath started as manager a few weeks ago but had been in sales since 2016 and was a farmer before that. He said his family previously farmed in Corrigin and Morawa. “Farmers who visited our display at this year’s expo were interested in mainly tillage technology,” Mr McBeath said. “There was a lot of enquiries on our newly released Morris 10 Series air cart designed to optimise the number of hectares our customers seed each day.” He said low-hour trade combines had gained a fair bit of interest with harvest coming up and storage logistics. “There are now some new combine quotes out there,” Mr McBeath said. “In technology, it’s a capacity focus. We are seeing a swing from 18-metre bars to 24-metre air-seeder bars and the same with combines — 12-metre fronts are going to 18 metres.” Mr McBeath said the late seasonal start had “cooked” a little bit of potential yield in the local region, but farmers were cautiously optimistic for a relatively good season — “an average season or better”. BEST TECHNOLOGY DISPLAY: Vestas The award for the best technology display was accepted by Vestas development manager Luke Barber, who said it was the company’s second year at the Mingenew expo. “Vestas is a global leader in wind energy — we develop, design, manufacture, install and service onshore and offshore wind turbines across the globe, and with more than 173GW of wind turbines in 88 countries, we have installed more wind power than anyone else,” he said. “We have been active in Australia for more than 30 years. “Vestas has constructed and is operating more than 2200 turbines across more than 60 wind farms — representing about 6GW portfolio and 40 per cent of Australia’s installed capacity.” Mr Barber said the Midwest Wind Farm would comprise about 70 wind turbines, each with a maximum blade tip height of 236 metres and a combined maximum capacity of about 500 megawatts. “To put that into perspective, currently the peak load of the South West Interconnected System, WA’s main electricity network, is about 4500 megawatts,” he said. “The proposed project will help achieve the transition to renewable energy use in WA.” BEST EDUCATIONAL DISPLAY: TRANSAFE WA Accepting the best educational display award on behalf of TRANSAFE WA was road safety education officer and driver Darren Ward. He said TRANSAFE WA was founded in 2014 as a not-for-profit industry initiative to support the employees of the road transport industry and the broader community through education, awareness and resources that supported a safe, professional and sustainable industry. “We deliver events and projects for both the road transport industry and the general public focused on safe heavy vehicle operations and interactions,” Mr Ward said. “TRANSAFE WA have a WA first and 2024 Australian Road Safety Foundation rural and remote programs’ award-winning road safety project named INSTRUCKTA. “It is a prime mover that was displayed at the expo that tows a double expanding exhibition trailer around to schools and community events throughout WA educating current and future road users on how to safely interact with heavy vehicles.” Mr Ward said TRANSAFE aimed to help make the roads safer for truck drivers and vulnerable road users, as well as attract safe drivers into the road transport industry. The INSTRUCKTA! Safety Truck comprises five main activities including a first-hand experience of where a truck driver sits and an observation of blind spots, a virtual reality experience via wireless headsets of driving a truck, and an interactive quiz. Other activities include a view of various safety videos and a way to pledge to reduce the road toll via wall-mounted touch screens. Mr Ward said TRANSAFE had hosted 29 highly successful road transport industry safety forums in WA. BEST HOME AND LIVING RETAIL DISPLAY: BLOCK 275 BLOCK 275 co-founder Fiona Mann accepted the expo award for the best home and living retail display. It was her family’s first win at Mingenew. “This is my second year of exhibiting at Mingenew — I am a local farmer at Eradu and my husband Liam and I produce a premium cold-pressed canola oil, GM-free with no processing — it’s a very different product,” Ms Mann said. “We’ve been going about four years and retail sales are online direct to consumer and we also supply a premium top-end chef type for wholesale food service, which I didn’t expect would market so well. “We buy in GM-free seed every year and our oil has a high 212C — making it perfect for everyday cooking, from delicate dressings to high-heat culinary creations.” Ms Mann said most of the canola oil on the market had a bad reputation because of the way it was processed, but BLOCK 275 cold pressed canola oil was unrefined and had a clean taste and bottled with health benefits. The BLOCK 275 brochure claims its canola oil is great for heart health (low saturated fat) and high in vitamin E. “I believe we are the only canola farmers in Australia that are value-adding with our canola product,” Ms Mann said. “We produce about 150 tonnes per year, but we are only pressing about 80 tonnes annually as required, but we have room to move.” BEST COMMERCIAL RETAIL DISPAY: Blackwoods Accepting the best commercial retail display award on behalf of Geraldton-based Blackwoods was operations manager Belinda Craig. Ms Craig said it was the third year at Mingenew and the retail tool company’s first win. “We carry a range of products at rock-bottom prices, including being one of the main suppliers of Milwaukee hand tools, which was the businesses bestselling product brands,” she said. “We have a range of customers from farmers to mechanics and we have a big showroom in Geraldton with a huge warehouse — we buy in bulk.” “I enjoy my job; it’s good to learn about the new items coming out. We had a display with CRC rust remover recently to see how it works.” Ms Craig said day one at expo brought a lot of prospective shoppers to their marquee, particularly when it started raining. “They flocked to our Father’s Day kit with saws that everyone was looking at,” she said. BEST LIVESTOCK DISPLAY: Datamars Livestock Repeating their win from last year, Datamars Livestock northern territory manager Hayley Goad said there was a lot of livestock in the Midwest and sheep tags were still a hot topic. “Farmers at the expo were having a good look at our range of electric fences, livestock tags, data management tools, sheep yards and automatic weighing products,” she said. “Sheep tags were a hot topic and there was a lot of interest in the livestock data for those measuring their data performance in their livestock.” Ms Goad said they offered two types of electronic sheep and cattle tags. “We do electronic fencing and fence monitoring systems as well,” she said. “The expo had a good turnout with some good conversations.” BEST RURAL INDUSTRY DISPLAY: Nutrien Ag Solutions Nutrien Ag Solutions Mingenew profit share principal Anthony Smyth said a lot of effort was put into the company’s display to win the best rural industry award. “A lot of time and effort goes into preparing our display at expo and it’s definitely worth it because it’s an opportunity to give something back to our customers and the expo,” he said. “Most of our clients are really happy with the season thus far — they are trying to maximise their yield potential to take advantage of the season that has been presented. “They are trying to finish off spraying and fertiliser application.” Mr Smyth said the region had 120mm of rain in June and 140mm in July, with 260mm for growing season so far and a bit more than 300mm for the year. “Its slightly above average right now,” he said. “Our main challenge is the calendar; the break was two weeks later than we normally like, presenting a risk that the season cuts off and it gets warm, but we do have a full moisture profile and would like it to remain cool and damp for the remainder of the season. “Grain prices could head north for canola and wheat — prices for lupins are great and there is a crop potential yield of significant tonnage to be delivered to CBH’s Geraldton Port Zone.” Mr Smyth said livestock numbers had been declining in the region since the past decade, “making way for cropping”. “There are still a few livestock operators west of town on some of the soil types that are reliable for livestock production,” he said. “Last year was one of the lowest rainfalls on record and a real nightmare, but 2022 was the best on record in terms of production.”