Day out at Fieldays leads to ute win
Out of more than 80,000 entries, Daniel Neil from Piopio has been announced as the lucky winner of the Isuzu D-MAX LX Double Cab 4WD Ute in this year’s Fieldays Ute giveaway.
NICK DROMGOOL, acting chief executive of New Zealand's National Fieldays – the Southern Hemisphere's largest agricultural show - visited Ireland's Ploughing Championships this week.
He was a guest of the National Ploughing Association and Enterprise Ireland, the Trade and Investment board of the Irish Government.
Dromgool had the opportunity to meet with Ireland's Minister for Agriculture, Simon Coveney, and senior officials of the NPA, to discuss the deepening relationship between the two agriculturally-based countries.
With the championships expected to attract over 200,000 visitors over a three-day period, Dromgool visited leading agricultural machinery firms, many of whom have exhibited at Fieldays. He was impressed with both the scale of the ploughing championships as well as the level of innovation of the Irish agricultural Industry.
Dromgool says "of the many synergies between both events, the focus and growth of innovations is paramount to the continued success within the primary sectors of both countries".
Both countries have demonstrated resourcefulness in their approach to solving farming challenges.
"I am keen to explore a collaborative relationship with the National Ploughing Association that will encourage a healthy exchange of information and representation at our respective events."
A strong economic relationship exists between Ireland and New Zealand, with two-way trade exceeding NZ$300 million in 2012. Fifteen Irish companies exhibited at the 2013 New Zealand National Field Days and Treza Gallogly, trade representative of Enterprise Ireland NZ expects this figure to grow in 2014.
"The 2013 Fieldays were a great success for Irish firms in New Zealand and Nick's presence here at the Ploughing Championships pays testament to this. We both recognise the strong connections between New Zealand and Irish agriculture, and are looking forward to bringing another large contingent of strong Irish agricultural companies to New Zealand in June next year."
Federated Farmers president Wayne Langford says the 2025 Fieldays has been one of more positive he has attended.
A fundraiser dinner held in conjunction with Fieldays raised over $300,000 for the Rural Support Trust.
Recent results from its 2024 financial year has seen global farm machinery player John Deere record a significant slump in the profits of its agricultural division over the last year, with a 64% drop in the last quarter of the year, compared to that of 2023.
An agribusiness, helping to turn a long-standing animal welfare and waste issue into a high-value protein stream for the dairy and red meat sector, has picked up a top innovation award at Fieldays.
The Fieldays Innovation Award winners have been announced with Auckland’s Ruminant Biotech taking out the Prototype Award.
Following twelve years of litigation, a conclusion could be in sight of Waikato’s controversial Plan Change 1 (PC1).