They were here to keep abreast of the latest farming technology now on offer in Australia, more particularly the big broadacre equipment assembled on the show complex.

"We have some big foragers but nothing like the broadacre cultivations gear you see around the field day," NZ tour guide and Grevillia Ag representative, Charles Borthwick, says.

"We just don't see anything like that at home."

Interestingly, Grevillia Ag is a noted bio-tech company specialising in offering products for the forage industry, also spraying.

"We've brought over a group of clients to see our operation in Australia and to have a look at this country’s farming practices," Mr Borthwick says.

The hay and silage contractors on the tour use the company's inoculants to ensure they get the correct ensiling process under way which, in turn, leads to better quality silage, plus improvements in animal production.

The season is NZ is surprisingly dry, according to Mr Borthwick.

"It's been so dry our silage production has been down some 50pc on normal levels," he says.

"In fact it's looking quite serious for fresh feed supplies for the winter and early spring."

Closer to home, seasonal prospects for local producers were also top-of-mind for Elders Toowoomba branch manager, Graham Andrews, who was keeping an anxious eye on the weather, conceding that the showers and storms of the past three or four days needed to translate into more widespread rain.

"Up until now it's been very patchy and while everything helps, it’s just such a critical time of the year for producers," he says.

"Unless you get the rain there's no feedstuff," Mr Andrews says.

As a result Mr Andrews says the mood out in the paddocks was somewhat mixed.

Earlier this week Mr Andrews told Queensland Country Life that Elders staff were usually at their busiest on the Wednesday and Thursday of the three-day event which was now the State's most important field days.