For the first time in decades, the National Fieldays at Mystery Creek was a political playground.
Normally, the organisers of the event hope for fine weather and lots of farmers. However, this year the same could be said for at least three of the political parties - ACT, Labour and National - who turned out in numbers to court the rural vote. The Greens appeared to have kept a low profile, probably recognising converting farmers to the 'green' ideology was a bit of a lost cause. But Groundswell were out in force.
The political 'suits', many from the cities - resplendant in their new, polished red bands - prowled the streets of the vast Mystery Creek site hoping to engage with farmers and rural people to garner their support in what promises to be a very tight election.
The key message that the three parties in question were keen to push was the issue of how the country should deal with agricultural emissions.
National front footed this earlier in the week by declaring they would scrap HWEN and give the farmers until 2030 to sort out the problems relating to dealing with emissions - a move that has been largely endorsed by farmer lobby groups.
On Thursday, ACT released its ag policy with the headline that farmers have faced a torrid six years under Labour and an avalanche of regulation and red tape. Their message was to demand that agricultural emissions be measured accurately and a promise to shift responsibility for farm plans from the Wellington bureaucrats to regional councils.
At the same time, PM Chris Hipkins had meetings planned with farming leaders to try and get HWEN back on track and to try and lure them away from National's attractive proposition of effectively pausing the process.
This year's Fieldays also saw a lot of events focusing on trade and the current global marketing prospects. The European Union ran a seminar on the NZ/EU FTA, which is working its way through the bureaucracy in Brussels to final sign-off and the UK also ran a similar event. In this case, they had at their seminar the UK's special trade envoy MP David Mundell who gave insights into the opportunities available to New Zealand as a result of the FTA.
All this aside, the weather for the Fieldays was at its best - frosty in the morning and fine during the day. As Rural News went to press, it was not possible to get a hand on numbers attending, but on the first day - at least - there appeared to be a reasonable turn-out.
What is unclear is the effect of having two events close together - with the last event in November 2022.
For farmers affected by Cyclones Hale and Gabrielle and other events, the chances of them coming along and spending up were probably not great - no matter how good the deals might have been. Most are having to spend what cash they might have on fixing fences and other infrastructure.
