Tuesday, 27 April 2021 13:55

Fieldays 2021 looking to be bigger and better

Written by  Mark Daniel
National Fieldays chief executive Peter Nation says farmers and exhibitors are itching to reconnect in both a social and business sense. National Fieldays chief executive Peter Nation says farmers and exhibitors are itching to reconnect in both a social and business sense.

It's a case of fingers, toes and anything else crossed at Mystery Creek, as the National Fieldays Society heads towards its first physical event since 2019.

Chief exectuive Peter Nation says the enforced cancellation in 2020 had been tough on the coffers, as besides National Fieldays, the operation was in the business of running numerous other events that had to be cancelled.

"Feedback is telling us that Fieldays 2021 will be bigger and better than ever, with farmers and exhibitors both telling us that they are itching to reconnect in both a social and business sense. Indeed, with the rural sector travelling well and a good-looking milksolid payout, it bodes well for some good business to be done," says Nation.

Scheduled for June 16-19, National Fieldays will be based around its key pillars of innovation, education and globalisation. While the latter will be taken care of by the parallel-running Fieldays Online presence, a smattering of countries such as Ireland, the UK and Korea will have a physical presence. The society notes that while there are still a few exhibitors booking sites at this late stage, it looks like it will be a sell-out by the time of the event.

On the education front, Taryn Storey, Fieldays marketing and communications manager, says there will be improvements in many areas including the Health and Wellbeing Exhibit that had over 26,000 visitors in 2019.

"The exhibit certainly proved its worth in 2019 where staff picked up eleven malignant melanomas, one case of Type-1 diabetes and numerous issues that warranted a trip to see a GP. It was also encouraging to see a number of wives and partners dragging their staunch other halves into the exhibit for a subtle 'WOF'."

Likewise, the careers and education hub will be expanded with several new exhibitors and agencies to offer inforamtion on a wide range of opportunities in the rural sector and the best course to follow to exploit these.

The popular innovations arena has also seen a refocus, to clearly represent the innovation life-cycle, resulting in three award categories: prototype, early stage, and growth & scale. This range of categories is said to allow individuals and companies, big or small, to get the support, recognition, and mentoring they require to take their innovation to the next level.

Fieldays innovations event manager, Gail Hendricks, says the changing conditions globally makes innovation a "top priority for businesses far and wide, especially for primary industries in terms of providing sustainable and productive solutions that drive economic progress."

Up for grabs are two $10,000 cash prizes, alongside prize packages from Fieldays Innovations sponsors Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Gait International.

Covid compliance is a must-have, and Fieldays will have extensive log-in facilities and copious sanitiser stations.

More like this

Fieldays goes urban

OPINION: Once upon a time the Fieldays were for real farmers, salt of the earth people who thrived on hard yakka.

King's Honour stuff

OPINION: The release of the King's Birthday Honours list would normally be Milking It's cue to moan about how agriculture, the backbone of the economy, had again been overlooked.

The JAC of all trades at National Fieldays

Already causing a stir in the burgeoning ute sector, JAC (“Jack”) has raised its profile by being named as the latest major sponsor of June’s National Fieldays, where it will officially introduce its top-of-the-line T9 4WD double cab ute to the market, joining its fleet of 100% EV and Cummins diesel trucks.

Featured

Australia develops first local mRNA FMD vaccine

Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.

NZ household food waste falls again

Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.

Editorial: No joking matter

OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.

National

All eyes on NZ milk supply

All eyes are on milk production in New Zealand and its impact on global dairy prices in the coming months.

Machinery & Products

Leader balers arrive in NZ

Officially launched at the National Fieldays event in June, the Leader in-line conventional PRO 1900 balers are imported and distributed…

JDLink Boost for NZ farms

Connectivity is widely recognised as one of the biggest challenges facing farmers, but it is now being overcome through the…

New generation Defender HD11

The all-new 2026 Can-Am Defender HD11 looks likely to raise the bar in the highly competitive side-by-side category.

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Full cabinet

OPINION: Legislation being drafted to bring back the controversial trade of live animal exports by sea is getting stuck in the…

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter