THE anticipation was palpable in the AFGRI Equipment tent at the Dowerin GWN7 Machinery Field Days as more than 100 people gathered to witness the draw of the AFGRI Equipment and Farm Weekly Win a John Deere Gator competition.
And if the buzz was big at Dowerin, it was even bigger on a farm at Kulin when local farmer Jay Robertson was phoned with the news that he was the lucky winner.
"I'm pretty happy with that," Mr Robertson said.
"I can't wait to tell the kids when they get home from school.
"I've only ever won a couple of chook lottos at the footy club previously.
"I thought you must be ringing me up to interview me for an article or something."
Mr Robertson said the timing couldn't have been better given he had "been looking at getting a side-by-side to replace our four-wheeler, but now I won't have to".
The John Deere HPX815E Work Series Utility Vehicle is valued at $22,255 including GST (RRP) and is standard four-wheel drive with a three cylinder 18.5 horsepower diesel engine, 450 kilogram capacity cargo box, 590kg towing capacity and top speed of 40 kilometres an hour.
Mr Robertson farms 5200 hectares plus 1800ha of lease country with his wife Alecia, their children Kate, 12, Fraser, 11, Ollie, 8 and Macey, 6, and his parents Graeme and Tricia Robertson.
Originally from Merredin, they have been farming at Kulin since the 1960s.
With 4500ha sown to very healthy wheat, barley, oats, canola and lupin crops and 4000 Eastville Park Merinos and 1500 Prime SAMM-Merino cross ewes (mated to Dorper rams) running around with full bellies, like many farmers, they are hoping the exceptional start to the season will see its full potential realised.
"Sheep and grain prices are fantastic and we've got everything crossed but we're not out of the woods yet," Mr Robertson said.
AFGRI Equipment marketing and small ag manager Jacques Coetzee, who drew the winning ticket, said having had such great success previously with sponsorship of a ride-on mower in the Farm Weekly Angus heifer competition it made sense to participate again.
"The Farm Weekly readership is pretty much directly our customer base so it gives us great exposure to these readers," Mr Coetzee said.
"It was also very exciting to see the number of entries received, as well as how much attention it received at the Dowerin field days.
"With the draw on the Thursday, we had quite a few people stick around hoping that their name would be called as the lucky winner.
"AFGRI would like to congratulate Jay on his prize win and we know he will have a great experience with his Gator."
There were almost 14,000 entries received in the competition and Farm Weekly general manager Trevor Emery said this reflected the demand for such a great prize from AFGRI and the relevance of the Farm Weekly print and online product to the WA agricultural community.
