“The Lions Club of Strzelecki started this event 25 years ago to make a one-stop shop for dairy farmers to attend, see the latest machinery, conduct their business and go home to their busy lives,” club president James O’Connor said.

This year’s expo, on September 4 and 5, was an opportunity for the club to honour its inaugural sponsors, especially its gold sponsors, as well as businesses that have more recently come on board.

A sponsors breakfast was held on the Thursday morning before the expo got under way to honour the businesses.

“As a farmer, you want to see the latest equipment and consider how you can use it in your farm’s environment,” James said.

“Through the interest of our sponsors, we have been able to hold on to the main aim of this expo, to bring value to the dairy farmer.”

In the spirit of the recent Olympic Games, a gold medal and a large box of chocolates was given to each sponsor representative.

Note was made of inaugural and ongoing gold sponsors Reid Stockfeeds, GippsDairy and Saputo Dairy Australia (originally Murray Goulburn).

Other long-term gold sponsors are Rabobank, Burra Foods, Easy Dairy Automation Systems, Tow n Fert, Evans Petroleum and South Gippsland Shire Council.

More recent gold sponsors have been GEA, ProDairy and Greenmate Agriculture.

Silver sponsors are Poowong Dairy and Hardware and SRH.

There are several new gold sponsors to add to this cohort in 2024. They are Brandt, Vic Silos, Dairy Pumping System, nbn local and Lely Center Gippsland.

“Along with these sponsors, the Lions club has been fortunate to have great media partners in Dairy News Australia, Warragul Gazette and Sentinel Times,” James said.

“Thank you to those newspapers for their tireless work to help promote the expo.”