Fieldays always brings leaders from around the region together – including, from left, John Robertson (Waitomo), Adrienne Wilcock (Matamata-Piako), Jenni Vernon (Fieldays chair), Pamela Storey (Waikato Regional Council), Susan O’Regan (Waipā), Richard Lindroos (Fieldays CEO), Paula Southgate (Hamilton).
It was the worst weather Fieldays has had in its 57 years history – but the crowds still came.
Ticket sales were up 4000 on last year and 110,000 people, buoyed by high dairy and meat prices, came through the gates of the southern hemisphere’s largest agricultural trade show.
“One hundred and ten thousand is a good number, a strong number,’ said New Zealand National Fieldays Society chief executive Richard Lindroos.
That’s not all that was up on last year.
Lindroos said 23 embassies were represented at this year’s event, up from 17 last year. A total of 1054 visitor visas were processed, up from 250 last year.
Ninety-two schools visited, up from 57 last year.
Lindroos said it felt like the event had recovered after the Covid pandemic.
“It was the worst weather we’ve ever had,” said Giltrap AgriZone managing director Andew Giltrap of his 42nd Fieldays held between Wednesday and Saturday at Mystery Creek Events Centre.
Before the event Giltrap, whose agricultural dealership has branches in Cambridge, Ōtorohanga, Rotorua and Taupō, was hoping it would be in the top 20 per cent of Fieldays.
But it wasn’t quite there.
“It was a little bit more cautious than I expected,” Giltrap said. “It was cautiously optimistic.”
Giltrap said Saturday, the day usually reserved for townies, was one of the better days due to the rain clearing up. His team spent this week on post Fieldays follow up with prospective clients.
Ōhaupō dairy farmer Andrew Reymer marked 50 years of the Fieldays Tractor Pull competition as overall winner of the Pre-1985 six to nine tonne tractor class with his newly imported 2805 Massey Ferguson from Minesota.
“There was only three of us in it,” Reymer said. “It was not really a great win. There was a lot of luck involved.”
Nevertheless, Reymer was happy with his first place having come second in 1987 and not competed for 10 years.
Reymer spent time at the Waikato Federated Farmers rural advocacy breakfast and running the organisation’s stand.
Hamilton’s St Paul’s Collegiate School’s KiwiPrune team of Madeleine Anderson, Courtney Malloy, Libby Meredith, and Casey Purves won the Fieldays Young Innovator Award for entrants 19 years old and under.
KiwiPrune was designed and developed to simplify the labour-intensive task of removing the plastic clips used to secure the Kiwi fruit vine. The device is designed to remove clips from kiwifruit vines on orchards, improving productivity, reducing strain, and enhancing sustainability.
The award entry came as part of coursework for the AgriBusiness in Schools programme.
Predator Free New Zealand’s Trust provided advice to hundreds of people throughout the event.
“People were really hungry for information,” said Predator Free NZ programme manager Bridget McShelly.
“We were really pleased with how engaged everyone was. Big farms and small farms and everyone in between.”
