Champion llama, bionic kiwi turning heads at Fieldays

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

Everyone stares as the tall, dark and handsome star of this year's Fieldays walks down the street, looks over gleaming tractors and eats his lunch in the village green.

Actually, his lunch is the village green.

His name is Just Macho, and he is a woolly llama.

Sitting in the back of a converted ambulance, Just Macho travelled from Christchurch to take in the sights at Fieldays in Mystery Creek, Hamilton. But he is certain to be a show-stopper himself.

The beautiful brown beast strolled around the huge site yesterday like a retired farmer, stopping to look at the latest in electric fences and ploughs, without flinching as the trucks drove by.

He nosed through tents, climbed stairs and stopped to be stroked by curious passers-by.

His owner, Brent Wallace, bought his first llama four years ago as a pet for his baby son, who is now learning to ride them.

"People have the wrong impression about llamas - they don't spit and kick. Kids can put their arms around them," he said.

But the Wallace family do not breed llamas as side-show attractions - they are raised on the Port Hills stud for their silky fibre.

When Just Macho is shorn in November, he will produce three kilos of fibre - one kilo will make a man's jersey.

"You don't need a lot of land to farm them, and they show a really good return," Mr Wallace said.

But they are not cheap. A young female costs around $10,000. A top male llama can fetch as much as $US200,000 ($478,000) in the United States.

Just Macho, born in America and raised in Australia, is the father of 10 and is sought after for his handsome looks.

"He has one of the best sets of ears in the world," said Mr Wallace.

The other creature turning heads at the Fieldays is a bionic kiwi.

The larger-than-life bird, made from old agricultural machinery parts, will be the feature of today's opening parade.

With feathers made from an old hay rake, and legs fashioned from a Mini, the remote-controlled kiwi represents "Kiwi ingenuity and Kiwi can-do."

In the tradition of No 8 wire, the Fieldays give farming inventors the chance to get some of their brainstorms off the ground. The theme of this year's show is invention, innovation and ingenuity.

Among the new inventions up for $13,000 prizemoney are a collection of possum traps, a broom for picking up walnuts, and small disc to keep water troughs clean.

Deer and sheep farmer Mark Acland drove up from Mt Somers Station in mid-Canterbury with four of his inventions.

Out of necessity, Mr Acland came up with a portable gate opener, triggered when a tractor wheel runs over a rubber cylinder on the ground.

"It's more of a safety issue. Deer can get quite aggressive at a gate, so this stops them running out when you're rushing back into your cab," he said.

Sharon Leathem is showing off her uncle's innovation - a humane killing trap for possums.

"I want to see the end of the gin traps - there's millions of them and they are so dangerous for humans," she said.

Her contraption is based on a noose inside a cage.

An award will be presented for the best farm sculpture, and the favourite is a 1903 steam-roller made from backyard junk by Peter Olifiers of Whakatane.

Mr Olifiers, who has won the honour five years in a row, has created the machine from an old hotwater cylinder, an air tank and rusty cogs.

"It took me three days of welding, and inspiration out of those little brown bottles," he smiled.

The fieldays officially open today and run until Saturday.

Event president Kerry Clarkin expects the number of visitors to well exceed last year's 110,000.

"The dollar for the farming economy is just incredible - and the farmers have to spend," he said.

"A couple of years like this and the country won't know itself."