{"id":113410,"date":"2025-06-20T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/?p=113410"},"modified":"2025-06-18T20:48:07","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T10:48:07","slug":"farmers-get-a-night-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/farmers-get-a-night-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Farmers get a night off"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>FARMERS from across the region were invited to mix, connect and relax on Monday night at the new Ballarat Showgrounds.<\/p>\n<p>A free initiative of the Ballarat Agricultural and Pastoral Society in partnership with Commerce Ballarat, the Farmer&#8217;s Night Off offered a barbecue and drinks, a talk from The Unbreakable Farmer Warren Davies, live music from Billy and Issac Menhennet, children&#8217;s entertainment including Western Bulldogs and Art Gallery of Ballarat activities, and a roving magician, and some door prizes at the end of the evening.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30038\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30038\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-30038 \" src=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/IMG_1019_71697.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"468\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30038\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Guest speaker Warren Davies, The Unbreakable Farmer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The event was run to support the farming community as they face the challenges of drought, increased costs and taxes.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Davies offered three key lessons that he had learnt throughout the trials of being a farmer.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Communication is key,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We need to have tough conversations to support eachother.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30038\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30038\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-30038 \" src=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/IMG_1026_83160.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"944\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30038\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ballarat Agricultural and Pastoral Society joint president Kerri Gallagher.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve got to stay connected. Isolation is the biggest killer in our community.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Seek help and make sure you&#8217;re there to support people who are struggling.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ballarat Agricultural and Pastoral Society joint president Kerri Gallagher said it would be a busy week at the showgrounds with more than 500 sheep arriving for the Victorian Sheep Show.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30038\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30038\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-30038 \" src=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/06\/IMG_1033_91690.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"488\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30038\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Musicians Billy and Issac Menhennet entertained the crowd.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s our first big agricultural event that we&#8217;re hosting,&#8221; she said. &#8220;The shed will be transformed into a massive sheep show.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve also got the Ballarat Rural Achievement Awards coming up in August.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FARMERS from across the region were invited to mix, connect and relax on Monday night at the new Ballarat Showgrounds. A free initiative of the Ballarat Agricultural and Pastoral Society in partnership with Commerce Ballarat, the Farmer&#8217;s Night Off offered a barbecue and drinks, a talk from The Unbreakable Farmer Warren Davies, live music from [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/farmers-get-a-night-off\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":113422,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-113410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Farmers get a night off - 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