increase font size
The Fieldays Innovation Awards are calling for entries.
Fieldays and its renowned Innovation Awards are celebrating their 57th year, marking a longstanding tradition in the agricultural calendar, with the latter delivering a platform for problem-solvers to showcase their innovation to the primary industries.
The call for entries is now open, inviting participation by innovators from the primary sector in areas such as dairy, meat, wool, forestry, horticulture - including viticulture, seafood, aquaculture, fishing, arable farming, alongside agri-tech -including food and green tech, and supporting activities like machinery, processing, and manufacturing.
With over $75,000 in cash, support, and promotion—including expert advice, product design, development, and marketing and media support—these awards aim to help grow and develop the winners’ products and services and provide solutions for the industry.
A diverse judging panel from across the industry includes the new members Emma Poole, Michelle Good, Justin White and Oliver McDermott, who will start judging starting at the end of April when applications close. The awards will be presented during an exclusive evening event at Fieldays.
Fieldays programme manager Steve Chappell said, “We are so lucky to have this calibre of judges year after year, and these new judges will only add to that skill set. Wool and natural fibres were highlighted at the 2024 Awards, and it is exciting to see which trends we’ll see in 2025 for entries and winners”.
On-farm solutions continue to gain recognition, including 2024 winner Penny Ranger, who won the Young Innovator Award for her invention, Mark-It. Competing in the Early-Stage category, the St. Peter’s School student developed a drench gun attachment that marks sheep to easily see which animals have been treated.
In 2024, the competition saw the highest number of entries in a decade, a reflection of the growing demand for innovation in the market, particularly in precision farming techniques and robotics.
Offering three entry categories, Prototype is suitable for yet-forsale NZ-based innovations, Early- Stage highlights innovations that have moved beyond the conceptual phase and have launched commercially within the last year, and the Growth & Scale category must have achieved market entry with a product or service in New Zealand and at least one other country within the last four years. The popular People’s Choice Award will also return in 2025, allowing visitors to select their favourite entry.
The Fieldays Innovation Awards are supported by sponsors Map of Ag, Gait International, King St. Advertising, NZME, Sprout Agritech, and Blender Design. Details including entry criteria can be viewed on the Fieldays website at fieldays.co.nz/ innovation.
Back at the 2022 National Fieldays Innovation Awards, Jade Luxton, then a Year 13 pupil at St Pauls Collegiate School in Hamilton, was taking out a Highly Commended Award in the Young Innovators Category.
The arrival of new F8 and F9 designations for its 8000 and 9000 series forage harvesters, signals a swag of upgrades from John Deere, highlighted by topping the 1000hp mark for the first time.
Waikato-Bay of Plenty farmer Hugh Jackson recently secured this year’s FMG Young Farmer of the Year title in Invercargill.
Ashburton-based Carrfields has signed an agreement with Manitou to take over the distribution and retail rights for Manitou Agricultural Equipment covering the lower North Island and the South Island, effective August 1, 2025.
With June ending and following the most upbeat National Fieldays for several years, tractor dealers are reporting a lift in sales.
NZPork has appointed Auckland-based Paul Bucknell as its new chair.
The Government claims to have delivered on its election promise to protect productive farmland from emissions trading scheme (ETS) but red meat farmers aren’t happy.
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.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
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.
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.
OPINION: Should cows in NZ be microchipped?
OPINION: Legislation being drafted to bring back the controversial trade of live animal exports by sea is getting stuck in the…
