The inaugural Wheat and Wheels 2013 attracted exhibits and people from all walks of life and all parts of NZ with a crowd of 5000 attending over the two days.
An event profit of $20,000 was donated to Ronald McDonald House and this year’s organisers are confident of an even greater event.
It’s about the old and the new, the bigger and biggest, of all ages and types that will pull the rarest of agricultural gems to mid Canterbury, organising committee member John Hall said.
“We have a lot of entries already in and we have some pretty exciting machinery coming.
“We have the world’s biggest combine lined up and the biggest set of discs in NZ along with some of the oldest agricultural machinery ever used in this country.
“It’s about bringing people together to share interests, whether it’s interest in the oldest or the newest. There will be something for everyone,” Hall said.
Military exhibits included a mock battle to commemorate the 100th anniversary of World War 1.
The event would be held on Peter Butterick’s Wakanui farm near Ashburton.
Butterick was a vintage enthusiast with his farm boasting no fewer than 30 Nuffield tractors, a collection of Bedford classic trucks and a 1931 Sunshine harvester that, at the time his grandfather bought it, was the first motorised harvester in mid Canterbury.
He has prepared 40 hectares of his farm for the event and come April 2 he would have wheat ready to harvest, paddocks set up to host the vast array of machinery and implements as well as space for working displays and a parade ring.
Ten loading ramps had been built to cater for unloading and loading machinery.
The wheat would be harvested and milled by the vintage machinery as part of continuous working displays.
“We have the world’s biggest combine lined up and the biggest set of discs in NZ along with some of the oldest agricultural machinery ever used in this country.”
John Hall
Wheat and Wheels
“We are very lucky to have Peter and his farm. W couldn’t run this event without a farm and a willing farmer. It’s a big thing to prepare a farm for an event of this magnitude,” Hall said.
Butterick said the idea was borne from a similar event held in the United Kingdom.
As far as he was aware the Wheat and Wheels event was unique to NZ.
Organisers were self-confessed “vintage nuts”.
“We have iron disease that there is no cure for,” Butterick said.
Entries had so far been confirmed from as far afield as Kati Kati in Bay of Plenty and Tapanui in Southland, where a contingent of 16 tractors would start its road trek to Ashburton at Easter.
The oldest track and the newest tracks would include one of only two Bates steel mules in the country and the greatest and latest from new machinery companies.
A group of Agricultural journalists from Finland had latched on to the event and had registered to attend, Hall said.
Traction engine enthusiasts from the UK had also confirmed attendance.
“It’s not just NZ-wide, it’s worldwide interest and that’s just what we know at this stage,” Hall said.
The Wheat and Wheels event would run over two days, April 2 and 3.
For more information and to register entries for Wheat and Wheels go to www.midcanterburyvintagemachineryclub.co.nz
