The 28th Fieldays kicks off today amid speculation that farmers won’t be spending so much at the agricultural event due to the ongoing dairy downturn.
The NZ herald reports that ANZ rural economist Con Williams said efficiency and cost cutting was likely to take centre stage at Fieldays.
"Dairy is challenged and will remain that way for at least the next 12 months, from a services and product provision perspective," Williams said.
"Big capital items like tractors will be lower down the shopping list versus the essentials needed to keep things ticking over," he said.
"If you are spending less on capital items you are likely to be spending more on repairs and maintenance," Williams said.
"The theme at the moment is how much you can take out of your cost structure."
Still, the event is likely to see at least 120,000 visitors over the four days it is running at Mystery Creek near Hamilton.
Innovation and technology will take a more important role than in previous years as the more than 1000 exhibitors attempt to woo over farmers with promises of saving time and labour costs.
Innovation will even be helping the average punter attending Fieldays – an app has been developed to help people remember where they parked their cars. A GPS pin is dropped when the car is initially parked, and the app provides directions back to that point when it’s time to go home. With several hectares of parking lot, this has the potential to save a lot of headaches.
Exhibitors and attendees have registered from 198 countries, including Guatemala.
Along with a new careers hub promoting the agriculture industry to students, traditional Fieldays favourites like the tractor pull and rural bachelor competition will be running.
And the news everyone wanted to hear – the weather forecast is fine until the event finishes on Saturday.