The Fieldays event has been running for the past 48 years and last week the Irish Farmers Journal had the opportunity to experience the largest outdoor agri-event in the Southern Hemisphere.

Despite the woes in the dairy sector, attendance figures were ahead of what had been expected. A total of 130,684 visitors entered the site in Mystery Creek between Wednesday and Saturday. This was just marginally short of the 2008 record attendance of 131,000 and surpassed the 2015 figure of 128,000. It is well below what our Ploughing can do.

There were the big showcasers such as Fonterra, Class, Fendt, New Holland, DeLaval and Waikato milking machines. There were social events for every age, too. In this publication’s humble opinion, the best of them was the Golden Pliers fencing competition. Putting up a nine-strand wire fence over 50m, over six hours, demonstrated immense skill and endurance. Log on to www.farmersjournal.ie to see a video of the competition.

Lacking the Irish charm

No agri-show would be complete without the Irish. Keenan, MooCall, FarmFlo, Crowley Engineering, Fleming Engineering, Cross Engineering and Dairymaster NZ were all showcasing. Some were supported by Enterprise Ireland.

Listen to an interview with MooCall vice president Paul Kelly in our podcast below:

The ones the Irish Farmers Journal spoke to reported a tough trading year but with business being done.

So, is it better than how we do it? At the risk of committing treason, in many ways it is. It is manageable – you can get around the site easily in a day. It is very focused, with farmers coming with cheque books in hand. One dealer said even though dairy incomes are on the floor, there were no tyre kickers and money exchanged hands for expensive equipment.

But Fieldays lacks a certain Irish charm. It is not the massive social event the Ploughing is. We have the friends you meet only on the third week of September each year. We have the flasks of tea in the boot of the car. We have the crowds. The weather in New Zealand was nicer, though.

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Full coverage: Fieldays 2016