It’s time to start humming the Henty Field Days song. Henty is a wonderful celebration of the Australian agriculture and farming industry.
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The famous tune immediately brings a couple of important health reminders to mind, which will ensure you have a great visit.
Wear comfortable shoes. Take a carry bag, backpack or trolley if you are anticipating buying lots of goodies. This will reduce your risk of a neck, shoulder or back injury as you haul heavy bags around with you. You can also take advantage of the two free shuttle buses stopping at eight designated points around the site.
Drink plenty of water and wear a hat.
Watch your step and use a walking pole if you are not as sure on your feet. While the pathways are quite flat, we are still in a paddock and there are some uneven surfaces.
If you are one of the wonderful volunteers, please ensure optimal manual handling techniques when carrying boxes of goodies and food. This year there is an agri-innovators site, which is always an exciting topic for a physio whose interest is to help find ways to reduce load and fatigue by improving manual handling and efficiency, particularly in the area of single person farming.
A couple of great innovations on display this year are:
- Back up Charlie – a flexible sheep movement system “designed to reduce operator fatigue and increase labour efficiency”. Designed in Urana, the system applies a “hands off” approach for pushing sheep up a race, preventing them from moving back in the race, saving precious backs, knees and time.
- A fencing trailer - custom built to minimise the amount of time spent loading and unloading fencing material onto a trayback ute using a forklift or tractor forks. Fencing is a never-ending task on the land, so this could improve your efficiency by having all of your materials at the ready and reducing the load/unloading manual handling risks.
- A remote controlled conveyor belt feeder, designed to fit on the back of a ute. Capable of handling large square bales and silage bales, this simple innovation has also been adapted for spreading sand, gravel, garden waste and mulch without the need for a hoist.
One of the main benefits of Henty is people coming together to discuss issues. Droving the Blues Away will raise money for the mental health organisation Riverina Blue Bell.
See you at the Henty Field Days … nothing like it anywhere!
