Just over 130,000 people attended this year's Fieldays at Mystery Creek. Photo / Supplied
Just over 130,000 people attended this year's Fieldays at Mystery Creek. Photo / Supplied
Multiple southern businesses made the trip north last week to the National Agriculture Fieldays.
The four-day event, which started on Wednesday, was held at Waikato's Mystery Creek, just outside Hamilton. Just over 130,000 people flocked through the gates.
In an indication of how popular the rural event was in its first year back after Covid-19 forced it online last year, the 70ha of parking at the site was forced to close on Friday - a record day for the event with more than 44,000 visitors.
Balclutha's Simplenakedsoap was one of the businesses to head north.
The company makes soap and skincare products from goat's milk produced on its property.
Owners Malcolm Gawn and Tracy Tooley hit the road nearly two weeks ago and attended other events on the way up, the biggest being the Fieldays.
The pair have been to the Fieldays several times and were booked to be there last year.
Southern Humates national sales manager Steve Brooker at the company's site at the National Agriculture Fieldays in Hamilton last week. Photo / Riley Kennedy
It had been a massive four days of selling products, Malcolm Gawn said
"On Friday, when it was really busy we estimated that we had nearly 3000 people come past."
It was a good time of year to leave the farm.
"We haven't been milking for about three months and we don't have babies due until the end of September, so we will be full on milking after that," Gawn said.
It was not the first time Southland-based humates company Southern Humates has headed north to the Fieldays.
The company extracts 80 million-year-old humates, a form of organic matter made up of partially decayed forest and other carbon-rich plant residues, from the Waituna Lagoon and sells it to the agricultural sector as a form of fertiliser.
The aim of being at Fieldays was to showcase the business to the rural sector, Southern Humates national sales manager Steve Brooker said.
Attending was all about "showcasing our products and our new products, while trying to get some new clients and tell people more about what we do".
"Although our product is extracted in Southland, we have distribution hubs in Invercargill, Christchurch, Blenheim, Palmerston North, Te Awamutu, New Plymouth and soon to be Hastings and Tauranga as our client base grows," he said.
Saturday was pretty quiet, mainly town people visiting, but the other three days had been very busy, Brooker said.
"The last few days have been pretty busy. We have been getting some great responses and also people who have heard about humates coming in to see what they are and how they should use them.
