KEY POINTS:
It may have reached a respectable age, but the annual Mystery Creek Fieldays, one of the largest agricultural shows in the world, is showing no signs of slowing down.
Hundreds of millions of dollars are expected to change hands over the next few days as farmers spend up large at the 40th anniversary Fieldays in the Waikato.
More than 1000 exhibitions over the show's 94ha are displaying farming innovations and new technology, ranging from smart phone systems which can oversee any aspect of farm management to recycled pieces of plastic which dry the insides of your gumboots overnight with the right wind conditions.
Fieldays' general manager Barry Quayle said it was the first time exhibitor numbers had topped 1,000 exhibitors.
A recent Waikato University study of last year's Fieldays showed it pumped $620 million into the economy, with about $300 million being spent at the event.
Quayle says to put that into context, a big sporting event generally pumps $20 million to $30 million into a local economy. He is also predicting a fairly optimistic environment this year
"There's no doubt that this emphasis on food [prices] is being recognised as supporting what the farmers have always known, that they're an important cog in the world's economy," Quayle said last week. "From that point of view I think they're going to be fairly positive that there's a good future out there."
Fonterra last month boosted its already record payout to dairy farmers to $7.90 a kilogram of milksolids - compared with $4.46 last season. It has also made an opening forecast for the new season of $7 per kg.
Despite the impact of the drought and a tough year for some farmers, particularly in the meat industry, Quayle expects spending to consolidate on last year. "All farmers know that if they don't invest in their farms they'll go backwards," he says. "So what they'll be doing is wisely spending."
Science and technology is an over-arching theme of this year's event, with the "Science of Farming" being promoted by show sponsors, the Crown Research Institute AgResearch.
AgResearch chief executive Andrew West has said New Zealand is "on the cusp of a golden age of agriculture."
Changes in the world market place meant there was potential to earn premium prices for the primary products New Zealand sold. Research and development would be needed to maximise these returns.
New Zealand's farmers had always been ahead of the game in terms of the utilisation of world-leading R&D, said West but it was important to uptake new advances even faster.
- NA HERALD STAFF
