THIS year's Farm Machinery & Industry Association annual general meeting, at Mandoon Estate, Caversham, was one of mixed emotions.
Last week's event saw new members elected to the committee and its concluding sundowner dedicated to the memory of former executive officer John Henchy, who died in September after a short illness.
Mr Henchy's wife Claire, daughter Emma and husband Josh Gilmour, daughter Anne and husband Chris Tate and their children 4.5-year-old Jasmine and Eli Tate 1.5, joined at the end of the meeting to hear chairman Brad Forrester announce a special award was to be instigated in Mr Henchy's honour.
"It will be known as the John Henchy Student of Excellence Award and will be awarded each year to a Muresk Institute student, not necessarily the dux, but one who shows outstanding work ethic, respect and professionalism, attributes that mattered to John and were epitomised by him," Mr Forrester said.
"John did an enormous amount of work to get the agricultural training program up and running at Muresk, without him I don't think it ever would have happened.
"It was a project 20 years in the making, for which he successfully gained State government grants of $7 million and $1.5m, and the two fully-equipped workshops (and four classrooms) are amazing for their tech fit-outs.
"It was a great thrill to see the doors officially opened in September, with the first intake expected to start in July and plenty of Eastern States' companies already showing interest in wanting to use it as a training facility."
While the training facility was clearly one of the major highlights of the year, Mr Forrester said in his chairman's report there had been some challenges for the FM&IA in the past year including supply chain issues, reduced crop yields, global pricing pressures and of course the loss of Mr Henchy.
"Apart from my dad, John was my greatest mentor and he always said disruption in business is good," Mr Forrester said.
New members elected unopposed to the FM&IA executive were Michael Phipps, branch manager at CLAAS Harvest Centre, Northam, and Dirk Vorster, Harvestaire general manager, Balcatta.
It was decided Mr Henchy's executive officer role will for the next 12 months be shared between executive committee member Ken Brown, operating in a part-time capacity and the rest of the executive team - chairman Brad Forrester, vice chairman Tim Boekeman, and members Peter Nunn, Anthony Ryan, Matt Jones, Michael Bailey, Mike Hutton and Greg Baird.
The AGM concluded with guest speaker Dr Matt Govorko, Cancer Council WA's, KNOW workplace cancer senior co-ordinator, giving a timely and pertinent talk on Men's Health, specifically cancer related.
Mr Govorko said of the 160,000 new cancer cases diagnosed in 2022, 55 per cent of them were men.
"Men tend to smoke more, drink more, eat less fruit and veg, 75pc of men are overweight or obese and they suffer more sunburn, which are all risk factors," Dr Govorko said.
"Australia has the highest rates of skin cancer in the world and men have twice the incidence of women.
"We know for all cancers early prevention is key, but men tend not to get themselves checked out as readily as women when they suspect things are not right because of their desire to be masculine, not show weakness and they were often embarrassed to talk about testicular or prostate related issues.
"We should remember that one third of all cancers are preventable and that the five year survival rate of cancer patients has improved to now be about 70pc.
Preventative measures included stopping smoking, stopping drinking alcohol or at least reducing to no more than 10 standard drinks a week and no more than four in any given day, eating more fruit, vegetables, bran and rice and eating less red meat, cured meat, sugary and salty foods.
In the case of skin cancers it was back to slip, slop, slap, seek and slide - slip on a shirt, slop on some sunscreen, slap on a hat, seek shade and slide on some sunnies.
Prostate cancer, the most common cancer for men, had no known cause and no effective prevention strategy, but again early diagnosis was key so Mr Govorko urged anyone with issues such as difficulty in peeing or increased need to pee, to seek help.
Similarly for bowel cancer, the second most common cancer for men, which would affect about one in 12 males and which could be about 90pc successfully treated, with checking for, finding and removing polyps in the bowel an important preventative measure.
More information: Contact the Cancer Council WA on 9212 4392
