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Great signs in expo site expansionEXHIBITORS are lining up tobe part of Tasmania’s biggestrural event as the Agfest wait-ing list grows to more than 150.

This year’s exhibitor man-ager Carlee Lee, now in herthird year in the job, said manyexhibitors had chosen to sig-nificantly expand their sites.

“We were back a little bitlast year, but this year eventhough we’ll have a similarnumber of exhibitors, they aretaking up a lot more room,”she said.

“Some of the exhibitors thathave come back after a breakhave chosen to expand theirsites. Especially in the agricul-tural machinery – they havesome really big sites, which isgood because it shows theyhave confidence that all thetime and money they spendgetting to Agfest is worth it.”

Like many committeemembers Ms Lee has been in-volved with Agfest for about 10years.

Ms Lee gave birth to a babydaughter a few weeks ago, sothis year’s Agfest promises tobe even busier than normal.

“I was thinking about not

taking it on this year when Ifirst found out, but I know thejob pretty well so with a bit ofsupport I’ll get through it with-out any problems,” she said.

Operations manager Der-ryn Badcock has been out onsite all this week making surepreparations are on track.

He said fine and dry weath-er so far had seen this year’sset- up flow fairly smoothly.

“Most of the big marqueesare up now and we had a work-ing bee over the weekend so all

the car parks are slashed andready to go,” he said.

With opening day less thana week away, Mr Badcock saidmost of the committee wouldmove on site this weekend.

“There are some jobs thatwe can’t really do until the lastminute so having everyone outon site is good because we canall get stuck in and do it.

“So far it’s running a bitsmoother than it did last yearand hopefully it will keep goinglike that,” Mr Badcock said.

Stand by for new

ONE of the key new attrac-tions at this year’s Agfest willbe the Australian TravellingFishing Show.

The display includes a port-able super tank, designed totempt angling enthusiasts witha look at how experts go aboutit. The perspex tank is 15m longand 3m wide and includesplenty of fish in their naturalhabitat.

Agfest patrons can get afirst-hand view of exactly whatfish see when they are under-water.

Fishing experts BrettThompson and Michael Cookewill give demonstrations twice

a day about different anglingtechniques.

The portable tank is amongmany Agfest exhibits cateringfor those interested in fishing,including suppliers of tackleand waterproof garments.

All up, there will be morethan 600 exhibitors spreadover the site displaying every-thing from food and wine totractors, livestock and crafts.

Another new attraction isTimbersports. Sponsored byStihl, this series of choppingcontests has been run inter-nationally since 1985, testingcompetitors on strength, en-durance and technical ability.

Fish tank new lure for patrons

THIS year’s Agfest again features the Unique Taste Pavilion housed in its purpose-built setting.

The field days provide a great opportunity for small localfood businesses to reach tens of thousands of patrons.

The best flavours of Tasmania take centre stage with food and drink businesses providing something to tempt everyone’s tastebuds.

There will be flavours from around the world, with Turkish, Mexican and traditional Chinese cuisines all represented.

This year the Unique Taste Pavilion again showcases anumber of new stalls as well as old Agfest favourites.

The pavilion includes seating for about 200 patrons, inside and outside.

There is a wide range of produce, including game meats,seafood, confectionery, smallgoods, mustards, sauces, mushrooms, pancakes, fruit and berries, jams, shortbread and drinks.

There are also 14 catering sites throughout the Agfest grounds. Only schools, community groups, service clubs and primary industry promotion groups are selected to provide catering services, to ensure the money raised benefits the community.

Feast of flavours from near and far

KAROLIN MACGREGOR

BIG WELCOME: Agfest organisers on site.

AGFEST 2015, organised by Rural Youth Tasmania, is at Carrick on May 7 to 9.Entry is $15 for adults, $5 for children aged 5-15 and free for children under 5.

FREE EYE SCREENINGIt only takes 15 minutes... but it could

be the most important 15 minutes of

your time while at Agfest

Visit the Optometry Tasmania stall for a

FREE eye screening at AGFEST 2015

MAY 7th, 8th & 9th

www.optometrists.asn.au/tasmania

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A NEW breed of cattle will be making its first Agfest entrance this year.

Kim and Geoff Jones will beexhibitors at Agfest for the first time when they take four cattle along from their Roscrea Speckle Park Stud at Spreyton.

The couple established their stud two years ago and said they thought Agfest would be the ideal place to promote the breed.

“A lot of people probably haven’t seen them before, so we thought it would be good to take some along so people can find out a bit more about them,” Mrs Jones said.

An embryo-transfer program has been used to breed the Joneses’ first purebred Speckle Parks and they have also bought in heifers from a New South Wales stud.

Mrs Jones said the breed’sunique coat colour had appealed to them, along with their excellent carcass traits. It is a medium-framed breed with excellent marbling traits.

Originally bred in Canada,Speckle Parks were first registered as a breed in 1995.

“We wanted something abit different. We liked the colours they came in, but they also produce really good beef,” Mrs Jones said.

She said calving time wasexciting because no one knows what colour the calves will be.

The breed’s main coloursare the speckled black and white pattern, leopard which is white with black spots, white, and pure black. The Joneses have about 90 pure and cross-bred Speckle Parks.

Mrs Jones said they wouldtake two bulls and two heifers to Agfest to be part of the beef expo in Main St.

KAROLIN MACGREGOR

ON SHOW: Geoff and Kim Jones with a Speckle Park bull. Picture: CHRIS KIDD

breed’s spectacular debut

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WESTBURY MEANDER VALLEY HIGHWAY

BASS HIGHWAYBASS HIGHWAY

BASS

HIG

HWAY

MIDLANDS HIGHW

AYMIDLANDS HIGHWAY

To Hobart

To Devonport

HAGLEY

BRACKNELL

BISHOPSBOURNE

CARRICK

LAUNCESTON

LAUNCESTONAIRPORT

PERTH

LONGFORD

AGFESTAGFEST

OAKSOAKSWHITEMORE

GLENORE

OAKS

ROA

D

OAKS

ROA

D

Launceston/Hobart

NW Coast/Deloraine

Carrick

Oaks R

d

Eastern car park

Eastticketbox

Disabled parking(Vehicle pass required)

South exit gate

Disabled parking(Vehicle pass required) 1200 Meters9006003000

Mainticket box

Northern car park

Southern car parkAGFEST site

OAKS RD7.30am - 12pm: Entrance only2.30pm - 6pm: Exit only

OAKS

HOBART

LAUNCESTONBURNIE

DEVONPORT

Whole new twist for classic dish THE traditional way ofcooking a meringue will get anew twist from the CountryWomen’s Association.

CWA Agfest committeesecretary Lindy Cleeland saidthe group was giving sometraditional skills a modernflavour at Agfest.

Cooking meringues in themicrowave, not the traditionaloven, is among manydemonstrations planned forthe CWA’s expanded site inthe craft pavilion. The area isabout three times the size oflast year’s site. The CWA alsois launching a new website andselling homemade biscuits.

“People can buy a pack ofbiscuits made from TasmanianFour Roses flour to help raisefunds and help CWA changethe world,” Mrs Cleeland said.

Globally, the CWA is theworld’s largest women’sorganisation. It has about 600members and 40 branches inTasmania.

ROGER HANSON

BIG SITE: The CWA’s Lindy Cleeland. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

How to get there

Come and visit the Tasmanian Country site, there is so much to see and do!• Mercury Goodies Bags - $3• Face on the Front Page - $3 • Tully Tiger Plush Toys - $5• Tully Goodie Bag - $7 • Daily newspapers available • Free Face Painting

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Brewing a family tradition

A SECRET family recipe and a passion for home brewing have led to a niche business for Mark and Carolyn Watson-Paul.

The couple will be sellingproducts from their Henry’s Ginger Beer business at Agfest for the first time this year.

Mrs Watson-Paul said making ginger beer was a family tradition.

“Mark’s mother used to make it and her mother, so there is a family connection.

“The recipe we use is definitely a family secret and we’ve just modified it. It’s all still brewed and made in the traditional way.”

The couple started out commercially about two years ago and now sell their products in specialty outlets and at food events across the North.

Mrs Watson-Paul said theygot involved with Agfest because they enjoy the event.

“I love Agfest, it’s fantasticbecause it’s this wonderful display of all these different things and it’s just so Tasmanian,” he said. “We’re really happy to be going this year.”

The couple make drinks atPenguin using locally grown produce where possible.

So far they sell a traditionalginger beer and one with wasabi.

“Japanese people workedout a long time ago that ginger and wasabi go really well together and I think that’s when the idea came to us, when we were having sushi,” Mrs Watson-Paul said.

Getting the right balance ofwasabi and ginger took about 12 months to perfect.

They are working on a drink with local honey and native pepperberry but are not sure if it will be ready for Agfest, where they will be set up in the Unique Taste Pavilion.

“We are pretty fussy so wedon’t like to start selling until we’ve got it right.”

CHEERS: Marc Watson-Paul.

Meaty Tassie treats feature on menuMOUTH-WATERING beef and lamb will be on the menu at Agfest, thanks to Pyengana Premium Meat and the Nicklason family.

The family will be selling arange of products including beef and lamb grown on their own property and flavoured with native herbs and spices.

Tara Nicklason said aftermaking the move out of dairying and into beef a few years ago, the family started down the value-adding path to help improve returns when son Darcy wanted to come home to work on the farm.

“We sat down and had a think about it and we realised we had this old dairy we weren’t using, so we made it into a slaughterhouse and butchery,” she said.

Now the family supplies beef and wallaby into businesses in St Helens.

Earlier this year the Nicklasons also involved two more family members who are chefs and sold their products at Launceston’s famous food event Festivale.

“I thought it would be a funthing to do with the family and we have these two young chefs who were really keen as well,” Mrs Nicklason said.

The home farm is about 324ha and the Nicklasons also lease a further 405ha nearby.

They run a breeder-finisheroperation with predominantly Angus cattle, but also have Herefords and are introducing Murray Grey genetics.

Making the change to a system that can turn out top-quality cattle 12 months of the year has been one of the biggest challenges.

Their Agfest menu includespulled lamb with native herbs and spices and blueberry relish, hot roast beef rolls and lamb kebabs.

KAROLIN MACGREGOR

NEW FOCUS: Tara, Ged and Darcy Nicklason. Picture: ROSS MARSDEN

MANAGING a vineyard isjust one of the array of 370qualifications on offer throughTasTAFE, the state’s largestpublic provider of vocationaleducation and training.

Viticulture teacher MarkBrewer said certificate II andIII courses in wine industry op-eration were popular.

“We have an eight-rowvineyard, students learn grapevine propagation and we alsomake wine,” he said.

Mr Brewer said the certifi-cate II always filled up quicklyand was valuable to thosewanting to get into the indus-try or those who bought a vine-yard.

Agfest patrons can get ataste of the wide range of

TasTAFE courses. A range ofpractical demonstrations in-clude vine propagation tech-niques and planting of vinecuttings, potted vines andhardwood rootlings with an in-sight into varieties and clones,techniques, pests and diseases.

Also on display will be hos-pitality students’ marzipanmodelling and information onhealth courses.

TasTAFE chief executiveStephen Conway said his or-ganisation offered flexible andsupported courses to ensurethat its programs suited indi-vidual learning styles, interestsand business training needs.

TasTAFE offers primary in-dustries courses in dairy farm-ing, agriculture, aquaculture,laboratory operations, animalstudies and horticulture.

EXPERTISE: Mark Brewer teaches viticulture at TasTAFE. Picture: ROSS MARSDEN

Fruitful skills in demandROGER HANSON

Spotlight on clever farming

INNOVATION is being em-braced by Tasmanian farmersand this year Agfest showcasessome of the new technologythat is changing the face of theagricultural sector.

The University of Tasmaniahas joined forces with Agfest tohelp educate and inspire thenext generation of agriculturalinnovators, with a new displayarea hosting some of the latestinnovations.

One of these is the newSense-T Pasture Predictor,which over time could prove agame-changer for producers ofdairy, beef and lamb. The aimis to give producers more accu-rate information about thepredicted pasture growth ontheir properties.

Tasmanian Institute ofAgriculture Dairy Centre lead-er Richard Rawnsley said hav-ing access to this predictorwould enable farmers to makeinformed decisions.

The program uses infor-mation including weatherforecasts, present weather con-ditions, soil-moisture levelsand historical data to predicthow quickly grass will grow inseven regions across the state.Dr Rawnsley said as the Sense-T network grew, the programcould provide more detailedpredictions, down to an indi-vidual farm or even paddock.

KAROLIN MACGREGOR

KAROLIN MACGREGOR