'Good bugger' calls it a day
Much of the rural industry is made up of an army of characters who tend to be “good buggers” or rogues, while a small number might fall into the “you need to count your fingers after a handshake” category.
With two successive events falling victim to Covid, Northland Field Days' coffers are running low.
Organising committee president John Phillips says going forward, they are now asking farmers for their help.
"Perhaps farmers can rear one of their beef calves to a weaner and then donate that calf to the Northland Field Days?" he says.
The three-day event, scheduled for next month, has been cancelled for a second year in a row.
The only silver lining this year is that organisers pulled the plug almost six weeks before the event.
Phillips says, last year, the event was cancelled only days before it was scheduled to start, resulting in huge financial losses all around.
"In 2021, we were three days out from the event when the Government changed the alert levels and we had to cancel," he told Rural News.
"All the marquees were up, trucks had brought in a lot of machinery and stock from as far south as Palmerston North, exhibitors sites were well developed, traffic control all arranged, rubbish collection organised - we were so ready to go!" he explains.
"Between Northland Field Days, all our exhibitors, suppliers and vendors, hundreds of thousands of dollars were lost - it was quite devastating for all concerned." Phillips says the committee applied to the Government for "some sort of financial assistane, but we were turned down". Some site holders kindly donated their site fee to the Northland Field Days, while others chose to have their site fee carried forward to 2022.
This money added to the income from its two lease agreements, enabling the committee to pay rates, insurance, bank loan interest and office staff.
"With a very limited budget we were ready to set up for our 2022 event when the Government struck again, moving the whole of New Zealand into red in the traffic light system.
"We have now applied for the Events Transition Payments Scheme assistance, but we are not hopeful that this will be successful," he says.
"It is understandable that the generosity of our site holders is also starting to wear a bit thin."
Phillips says Northland Field Days is a registered non-profit charitable organisation and this annual event has a huge financial impact that benefits the entir Northland region in so many different sectors.
Phillips, a dairy farmer near Dargaville, says farmers happy to help the field days can contact its office on 09 439 8998 or by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
