Crowds flock to Fieldays despite dairy shellshock

Attendence at Fieldays in Mystery Creek, south of Hamilton, was more than 5 per cent up on last year. Photo / Alan Gibson

Attendance at Fieldays at Mystery Creek, near Hamilton, was up by 5.2 per cent compared with last year's weather-affected event.

On the fourth and final day on Saturday, 30,188 visitors attended the event, which is the biggest on the New Zealand agricultural calendar. Total attendances came to 126,063, up from 119,892 in 2014.

"We're very happy with visitor turnout and feedback we've been receiving has been really positive," said head of events Lee Picken.

On the first day - Wednesday - attendance was 28,921, up from around 21,000 this time last year.

On Thursday, 28,835 people attended, up from around 23,000 on the same day last year. The first two days of last year's Fieldays were affected by bad weather.

Feedback from exhibitors was largely positive, despite confidence being knocked by the low farmgate price from Fonterra of $4.40 and the forecast of $5.25.

A Federated Farmers spokesman said farmers were "a bit shell-shocked" by low farmgate prices.