Stony could reap expo benefits

ANOTHER International Dairy Week has just wrapped up at Tatura Park, near Shepparton, with many local dairy producers coming home from the event winners.
The Kuhne family’s Jersey cow, Bushlea Van Fernleaf 10 was named Australia’s grand champion exhibit, while a calf owned by Callum Moscript smashed the Australian record when it sold for $251,000.
International Dairy Week brings together field days, cattle shows and sales at the impressive venue, which is similar to the proposed exhibition centre at Stony Creek.
Comprising of an indoor and outdoor arena, permanent stabling and several grassed ovals as well as offices and a large kitchen, Tatura Park welcomes thousands of people to dairy week each year.
While the proposed facility at Stony Creek is not on the scale of Tatura Park, regular attendee of International Dairy Week Jocelyn Mackie from Meeniyan said if the facility is built, it would be well suited to cattle shows.
She said like many others, she attends the dairy week as a family and would spend at least $100 per day at the show, plus accommodation.
At dairy week, the local football club caters, while some people do their own cooking and others stay in nearby towns and visit local restaurants.
There are also lot of people involved in the event who don’t bring cattle, who stay in surrounding towns for the week.
“As a family, we were spending around $100 a day in the local community, plus accommodation. During dairy week at Tatura, everything is booked out,” Ms Mackie said.
“We had five head of cattle there for three days and we spent $200 on hay as well. We are only a small operation.
“Dairy week is an extreme, but the impact on the local economy is obvious.”
Ms Mackie said South Gippsland would be well placed to hold cattle shows.
“There is an annual show at Bendigo which attracts around 200 head of cattle, which the proposed centre at Stony Creek could easily replicate,” she said.
“People attend the Bendigo show from all over the state for at least three days and would spend around $200 per day in the local economy.”
Ms Mackie said the undercover area at Tatura is a similar size to the proposed Stony Creek facility.
“For horse events it is big enough for one dressage arena, however for a cattle show and trade display, it could fit a lot more in,” she said.
“They also hold a lot of big horse events at Tatura including cutting, reining, showing, dressage and showjumping, which are all done on the same surface.”
Plenty of dairy farmers from South Gippsland attend dairy week.
“For some families that go up together, like us, it is their interest so they treat it as a holiday,” Ms Mackie said.

Cattle shown: Meeniyan’s Scott Mackie leads his cow through the ring at International Dairy Week, held in Tatura recently. A similar facility to the one at Tatura Park is proposed for Stony Creek.

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Posted by Sarah Vella on Jan 31 2017. Filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry