increase font size
A volunteer driving visitors around with a vintage Massey Ferguson tractor.
History will come alive in a fresh way at the Fieldays Ag Heritage Village.
Visitors to the village can travel back in time on an interactive scavenger hunt and see views of farming life as it was for the pioneering families of New Zealand.
Educating youth about their agricultural heritage is the focus of the village, emphasised by the recently refurbished barn; heritage co-ordinator Alan Reilly is putting together pieces of the past for younger generations.
"The land that we live, work and farm on holds the stories of our history, and these shape who we are today, whether we realise it or not. Opening our heritage buildings during Fieldays will help us to share some of these stories with our community," says Reilly.
He wants to tell the stories in a way that will educate and encourage children to look closer at everyday items and think more about their history. "All these stories will soon be lost, which is why it's important to share and record them.
"During Fieldays we'll have hands-on challenges, puzzles and ag heritage activities in all our heritage buildings."
This year the vintage tractor parade has had a revamp and will be bigger and louder than ever.
Tractors from the Waikato Village Tractor and Machinery Club will park around the heritage village lake and complete a vintage tractor parade twice daily at 10am and 2pm.
Signalling the Fieldays society's commitment to the heritage village, the barn got a facelift earlier this year and now houses a collection of items that illuminate Waikato's rural past.
The next village project will be to create a space where people can record and share their own stories about the artefacts on display, eventually integrating these stories into the education experiences on offer.
For more info, Waikato Village Tractor and Machinery Club tel. 07 883 1103.
Walking around the Fieldays this year, expected most of the conversations to be about machinery purchases and farm infrastructure upgrades. Instead, one topic seemed to keep cropping up more frequently with farmers – the price of PKE.
A leading British farming politician says he's impressed with the positive attitude of New Zealand farmers that he met during his recent trip here.
A new digital assistant is now helping Ballance Agri-Nutrients farmers speed up nutrient information and ordering.
OPINION: At Fieldays this year, one theme kept surfacing across the sector: global shocks are no longer something that happens “over there”. They are now translating quickly into local, farm-level impacts through increasingly complex and connected channels.
As the dust settles after Fieldays, we're once again reminded of the sheer volume of technology now available to New Zealand dairy farmers.
An Auckland gelato shop and an established New Zealand ice cream maker have both been named Supreme Champions at the NZ Ice Cream & Gelato Awards 2026.
As the cost-of-living crisis continues to put pressure on household grocery budgets, new figures show pork remains one of the most affordable fresh meat options for New Zealand families.
OPINION: In politics, credibility is and should be big. It must surely rank higher than charisma, which is quite trite and superficial. Yet, voters nowadays are often wooed and influenced by how someone looks or talks at a superficial level. TV plays a huge role in this.
Farmers can spend less time on paperwork, thanks to a new data sharing agreement between DairyNZ’s DairyBase and LIC’s MINDA software.
Kaikōura families affected by July's severe storm have found a practical solution to a problem that's kept some children away from regular schooling for weeks: a washed-out section of Inland Kaikōura Road, which has stopped the local school bus from running its usual route.
Rural New Zealand is welcoming the Government’s recent package of rural healthcare initiatives.
OPINION: After hogging the media limelight for telling a NZ Chinese MP to "go back home", Winston Peters has decided…
OPINION: With fuel prices soaring, one would have expected most farmers to be reclaiming excise duty on petrol.
