Where did the biofuel come from? Did you have to make modifications to the tractor? How did it all work?

We decided, okay, let's kind of do a loop around Western Australia.

So we went from Perth across to Kalgoorlie, which is sort of on the eastern side, then down.

And so you sort of then would shoot off across the Nullarbor, and that's what takes you across to South Australia, to Adelaide.

We went down to the coast to Esperance, sort of trailed along on the coast there, and then came back up kind of the western side.

I guess part of the thing was, you know, heavy industry like road trains over there, you know, massive, they're 53 and a half metres long, they're four trailers, they take 150 tonne.

So there's all of these, you know, kind of things that are going on.

What did they say and what did they think?

Mm.

Similar for them, right? When the Iran war kicked off, they were just about to seed, and so they were like, "Man, we don't...

It's so uncertain.

We don't know." It all was just a nightmare, you know? And so it just exaggerated the problem.

So I guess for them, they're like, right, we can, you know, it's not quite this simple, but essentially they could take the canola straight to the plant, you know, in trucks and tractors from the field essentially, right? If it, it's that close.

They then process it, and then they can kind of use some of that back on their farm.

It's a bit of a circular economy for them.

Yeah

Are people buying the big horsepower tractors or what's been the majority of the sales?

So we're definitely seeing a trend of 150 horsepower plus, right? That market is super strong, you know, like, and, you know, not to, you know, your 2680, that market is actually really shrinking and that really exploded.

That's probably where the growth numbers were post-COVID.

People had a lot more disposable incomes and they decided to buy lifestyle blocks and all the good things that go with it.

Whereas now we're seeing, so I think the trend is twofold, right? You know, we've got strong commodity prices, so contractors are not necessarily expanding, but there is also a lot of rural confidence.

So it gives them a chance to think, okay, the midterm outlook is okay.

Let's upgrade a bit of equipment, of which there are 150 plus horseback tractors.

Hey, just quickly before we go, Australia, what are they doing? Are they falling off a cliff?

What's the split been? Has it been the contractors? Has it been the farmers? And if it's the farmers, what are they buying? What's the machinery? What are the tractors that they're interested in?

The numbers actually suggest that it's above 150 horsepower, right? That's where the real growth has been.

So that is probably more of a contractor thing.

But I guess on the flip side, as farms get bigger and things become, they look for efficiency, right, with labor and time constraints, that farmers are moving into those heavier and larger frame tractors.

And so definitely the 150 horsepower plus categories have been where the growth is.

And that's actually something that is a trend worldwide.

We've been seeing as well, like in a lot of the other more developed markets, a similar trend where the lifestyle and those small attractors are declining.

On the machinery side of it, are we seeing any changes or are you picking up any changes in the way machinery is being bought? For example, are we seeing bigger machinery being bought by contractors to cover more farms or are we starting to see some of these bigger farms looking to purchase their own machinery to do their own work because then they can guarantee getting it done when they want it? Has there been any shifts in the purchasing patterns?

Have you been surprised by anything that maybe didn't quite work or worked better than you thought in that process?

Firstly, super humble by the amount of support that we've been given.

Do you know what I mean? Like, that's been really cool.

The other thing, you read all of this stuff about two-minute videos or 30-second snippets, and it has to be real snappy, sort of attention-grabbing type stuff.

So we sort of did start to do a little bit of that stuff, but then realized that if people are going to spend $500,000, $600,000, $700,000 on a machine— they're actually prepared to watch a 10 or 11 minute more comprehensive walk around showing all of the features of the machine itself.

And I guess, you know, we come to the field days and a lot of the rhetoric is that these people are really well informed.

You know, they've already sort of made their decision before they come onto the stand.

Like, what was that thing called?

Yeah.

universally the most unpopular so there's some cool stuff like that right and then and then that's all the way then to you know isobus compatible loaders that you know weigh and do things and you know knows where the bucket is it won't lift it higher than x amount so that if you're in a shed it's no matter how much you put on the joystick it literally you know so so i mean you know everything from kind of genius kiwi ingenuity to get to get around some of those unpopular jobs then all the way up to to kind of some of that tech that we're talking and literally everything in between but You know, overwhelmingly positive, right? Everyone was very positive.

It probably wasn't a, you know, take my money, do you know what I mean? Like, we're here to buy, you know, let's go crazy.

I think there's still some stuff externally, geopolitically that people are a little bit nervous about, but overwhelmingly very, very positive, you know, and that was representative of all of the exhibitors.

Field days itself, and you kind of alluded to this just before we went to the wee break, that sales made, what were you hearing from, you know, from the companies? Was it, did they get what they expected? Was it just a lot of inquiry going, looking forward? Or, you know, did you hear some good numbers?

Yeah, absolutely.

I think there was good, honest, genuine inquiry.

I definitely don't think people were shouting from the rooftop as it was the most amazing field days we've ever had.