TM: The AgTech Showcase was designed by a team of experts and industry professionals to bring together some of the new and emerging technologies that could affect production in the vegetable and other horticultural sectors.
IL: We wanted to showcase the latest technology that growers could adopt here in the valley. We quickly went from 200 to 300, 400 interest, then we had to extend to a second day. We got 600, and then we've ended up with a thousand people with international visitors from the EU, from the US, New Zealand, and all states of Australia really coming to the Valley.
AG: The AgTech showcase has really brought value to the industry for me by bringing all these people who are developing machinery together in the one spot so that we can all have a look at them side by side and really get those innovation juices flowing through, meeting the multiple different vendors that we've got.
IL: The Stout AI mechanical cultivator is the first one in Australia, right here in the Lockyer Valley. The FarmDroid is similar, it's their first ones in Australia. The weeder, it's a solar power weeder and seeder, again for the first time. The Robotti, again, really the first time in the Lockyer Valley where people have really been able to see that working in a proper field environment.
LVL: It's great to have international technologies brought to us with local growers, showcasing how that technology can work on farms in our areas.
TM: We had a lot of excitement in the technologies that were shown. That included technologies that could help them make their farming system easier, but also improve their bottom line, and also look at ways in which they can improve the sustainability of their enterprises.
BB: So it opens up the avenue of having a different skillset come onto farms where instead of people driving a tractor, they're probably driving a computer, especially with the new innovation that's available.
CP: I think an event like the AgTech Showcase brings great value to just the farmers and the agronomists and just the whole industry to come together and talk and just see what's out there to broaden our minds to what we can and can't do.
AG: Some of the technology that would be really applicable here is the Stout Auto Weeder. If we can get rid of potatoes in bean crops, that would be amazing for the Simplot business and for our growers.
BB: Without field days like this, we have to travel the world to see this sort of new innovation and technology. So to bring it here under Australian conditions is a great achievement.
Last updated: 23 Sep 2025