Craig Hargreaves, from SwarmFarm Robotics, which took out the coveted Machine of the Year Award at the 2026 Henty Machinery Field Days. Photo: HMFD.
Before the SwarmFarm team collected top honours at Henty, two young visitors had questions about a robot.
One was from Benalla, the other from Melbourne. They wanted to know how it worked and what the technology could do on a farm.
For company representative Craig Hargreaves, it was a conversation that went to the heart of what the Henty Machinery Field Days could offer.
There were school buses bringing children through the gates, farmers checking out machinery and, on the SwarmFarm Robotics stand, a glimpse of where a career in the country might take you.
Perhaps even back home.
SwarmFarm Robotics’ AutoFill won the 2026 Henty Machine of the Year Award on Tuesday (22 September) for a system that allows farming robots to refill and return to work without an operator.
It was recognition of more than five years spent developing a product that could make farmers’ working lives easier and reduce their handling of chemicals.
But as Craig talks about the Australian-developed technology, the conversation turns to the people behind it.
Many of the company’s staff grew up on farms before heading away to university and work in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane.
Today, they can do the work they trained for in a rural setting, with opportunities Craig says weren’t available 10 or 15 years ago.
For children visiting the company’s workshops and factories, that opens up possibilities they might never have considered.
You can be interested in engineering and technology and have a future in the bush.
Out in the paddock, AutoFill addresses a straightforward problem.
A robot might be able to do the spraying, but when its tank runs low, somebody still has to go out and fill it.
“This unit was designed initially to allow our robots to be filled autonomously so the farmer doesn’t have to go out to the paddock and fill the robot when it’s due to be filled,” Craig said.
The system measures and mixes chemicals, refills the spray tank and allows the robot to get on with the job.
That reduces the need for someone to interrupt their own work to service the machine, while limiting direct contact with chemicals.
Craig said concerns around chemical handling were a major consideration in developing the unit.
Support from the Grains Research and Development Corporation helped the team take the time needed to get a commercially viable product into farmers’ hands.
Henty provides an important opportunity to meet those farmers, particularly cereal growers from southern NSW and Victoria who make up a key market for the company, according to Craig.
“Henty is extremely important,” he said.
An independent panel of five regional primary producers judged eight shortlisted entries, considering everything from suitability and durability to maintenance, ease of operation and value for money.
Judge Warren Scheetz highlighted AutoFill’s operator safety, labour savings and increased productivity.
“It enables Swarm Bots to return to a refill station and automatically measure, mix and load multiple products, and resume work without operator intervention,” he said.
Since launching in October 2025, SwarmFarm has deployed 14 AutoFill systems with commercial customers, with another 30 scheduled for delivery in coming months.
Meanwhile, Wagga’s Stoll Boomsprays was also recognised with its CB Series sprayer receiving a highly commended award.
Developed in partnership with Carbon Bee and ARAG, the sprayer detects weeds within growing crops, allowing growers to target them while reducing chemical use.
For visitors without a farming background, there is plenty to get their heads around when it comes to the complexities of these magnificent machinery advancements.
Craig believes field days help people understand the industry and its place in their everyday lives.
Asked about a divide between city and country, he sees it somewhat differently.
“I wouldn’t say so much as a divide, but I think there’s a misunderstanding,” he said.
The connection, he points out, is as simple as the food we eat.
“You don’t have milk if you don’t have dairy farmers,” he said.
“You don’t have bread if you don’t have wheat growers. You don’t have canola oil if you don’t have canola growing. It’s where everything starts.”
SwarmFarm began in Central Queensland with a husband and wife who wanted to improve farming and change how it was done.
Some of the people helping them do that are young professionals who once left the country to pursue their careers.
“And now they’ve come home,” Craig said.
Now, with robots working in paddocks, engineers returning to the country and school students stopping to ask how it all works, the next big idea may very well belong to a kid stepping through the gates at Henty.
Original Article published by Jodie O’Sullivan on Region Riverina.
