PROTECTING their local community, emergency workers and event volunteers.
That's what it came down to when making the decision to cancel the third of Western Australia's iconic field days - the Newdegate Machinery Field Days, that was due to be held on September 2-3 this year - on the back of the McIntosh & Son Mingenew Midwest Expo and the Dowerin GWN7 Machinery Field Days that were to be held in August.
Newdegate committee secretary Anne Bishop said it had been a hard decision to cancel the event, but all things considered, the committee believed it was the right one to make.
"We held off for as long as we could, but at the end of the day we felt it would be extremely unfair and irresponsible to put our community and emergency services in a vulnerable position by bringing people into the town," Ms Bishop told Farm Weekly.
"There were so many variables to think about and we usually do some heavy duty planning in April, May and June, so we decided there was no point in our volunteers undertaking that work when it was more than likely the event wouldn't be going ahead."
A major sponsor of the event, Dyson Jones Wool Marketing Services trading director Peter Howie said the company was disappointed, but understood why the show had been cancelled.
"We've been heavily involved with Newdegate Field Days, having been a sponsor of the event for over 25 years, supporting the fashion parade and State Ewe Hogget competition," Mr Howie said.
"We have our own stand and have been part of the Newdegate community for a long time, so it's usually a great chance to catch up with all of our clients and support them as well.
"But Newdegate is a strong community, so I'm sure the committee will take advantage of having the year off to come back bigger and better next year."
Another regular exhibitor at the major field days around WA, DE Engineers' owner Kevin Prater said he was disappointed the company wouldn't be able to show off its new products at Newdegate this year.
"If you don't change your products from year to year it doesn't matter too much, people buy the opposition or they buy yours, but when you have something of interest that you want to show or promote, that's when the field days are really great for your business," Mr Prater said.
"Our business covers a huge area and not all of the farmers can come and see us, so we take the field days as an opportunity to catch-up with our customers, and they give us feedback on how our products are going and what could be improved.
"It's a really great way for us to innovate, because these are the guys using the gear, so most of my ideas for our products have all come from the field days and chatting to farmers."
Mr Prater said the company usually spent about $20,000 per year to exhibit at all of the State's major field days and would look to other avenues to market its products.
"The field days are really effective at putting you at the forefront of people's minds and building those relationships with farmers, but we will have to redirect our marketing efforts into some other type of media this year."
Hopeful of completing some major works around the site this year, the Newdegate Machinery Field Days committee was awaiting notification if it had been successful in its application for funding in the Federal government's Regional Agricultural Show Development Grants Program.
With a pool of $20 million designated towards the maintenance and upgrade of existing infrastructure and purchase of additional infrastructure for agricultural shows on regional showgrounds, Ms Bishop said the Newdegate Recreation Precinct was in much need of maintenance work.
"Unfortunately, with the State and Federal government's new distancing laws, we are unable to do busy bees on the showgrounds, so it will just be a case of wait and see with our volunteer work in the interim," she said.
In early April the Royal Agricultural Society of WA (RASWA) announced it had closed its doors until the end of May.
RASWA president Paul Carter said the organisation was still hopeful the 2020 Perth Royal Show (scheduled from September 26 to October 3) would go ahead but would not be making a decision until May, when they better understood the COVID 19 situation.
"With a period of six months between now and the first day of show, we are holding back on making any hard or fast decisions," Mr Carter said.
"Our hope is that we will be able to host a show that will represent a return to normality and an opportunity for optimism and hope following the uncertainty and worry of the COVID-19 outbreak."
Ms Bishop said the COVID-19 pandemic had brought out togetherness within small rural towns, with communities rallying around one another.
"I think, through this experience, people are realising how important small communities and our country farmers are," she said.
"And for those of us living in rural areas, we are also realising how lucky we are, because we are largely self sufficient already, so isolating on a farm is nothing new to us."
