Fieldays not just for rural audience

COOL VISIT: Mount Maunganui Intermediate School students visited the National Fieldays at Hamilton last week to learn about energy efficiency. PHOTO/CARMEN HALL

Everyone in the Bay of Plenty should visit the National Fieldays in Hamilton at least once in their lifetime.

I have visited several similar events around the country but nothing compares to the largest agricultural extravaganza in the Southern Hemisphere.

The atmosphere may scream rural, but the experience has the ability to blow you away with more than 900 exhibitors on 115 hectares pushing everything imaginable from the latest robotic milking machines and solar-powered fence mechanisms to GPS mapping, possum fibre socks and every food known to man.

But it was not just an attraction for farmers although undoubtedly it is a major outing and a chance to chance to catch up with the latest technologies on offer.

Judging by the people lugging around big bags of purchases and those in hard negotiations wallets had been opened and money spent regardless of impending interest rate rises and caution from Fonterra about future lower farmgate milk prices.

I think the organisers deserve huge credit as organising a four-day event the magnitude of Fieldays can't be an easy feat.

Improving on it year upon year seems almost impossible but, somehow, they manage to pull it off cementing New Zealand's reputation as a leader and innovator.

Good old Kiwi number 8 wire ingenuity definitely reigns supreme on all fronts and should be celebrated and includes a nod to the Western Bay of Plenty with businesses like Grandpa's Feeders, Kliptank Tanks, GPS-it, Boonies Footwear and Trap Worx.

Zespri, Kiwifruit Vine Health and Kiwifruit Growers Inc also had a presence teaming up together to promote the industry and provide an estimated 30,000 pieces of kiwifruit for visitors to taste.

Logistics play a big part in navigating around the sites and the makeshift city has its own Fieldays mobile app with detailed maps and schedules of events that received 31,000 page views.

CEO John Calder said 120,000 visitors passed through the gates last week and feedback was positive.

Numbers were down from 125,000 in 2013 due to bad weather, but the crowds that braved the elements did not leave disappointed, he said.

Chairman John Calder said some exhibitors reported sales were up on last year and the mood among farmers was upbeat despite predicted forecasts.

Mount Maunganui Intermediate also spent an educational day at the Fieldays.

Teacher Kylie Price said it brought their moturiki syndicate to learn more about energy efficiency.

"We are studying energy efficiency so this was a perfect way of showing the kids energy efficiency within forestry, agriculture, transport and power. They have had an amazing day, heaps of freebies and they have learnt a lot about efficiency.

"It's really good for our kids because they can wander around freely and are able to see many different exhibitions."