About 5000 visitors had attended the event by noon last Thursday, a similar number to last year.
Action events included a tractor pull, lawnmower racing and logger sports contests. More sedate was the silent auction and lectures by ANZ rural economist Con Williams on the state of farming.
The Northland Field Days Tractor Pull celebrated its 21st birthday at the field days and organiser John Phillips says there had been a lot of interest in all the competitions with ANZ taking out the bank challenge.
“The weather is perfect for the tractor pull,” Phillips told Dairy News. “I would like a bit more rain for the farm but it’s great weather for the tractor pull.”
About 20 drivers were entered for the main competition on Friday, and 25 drivers for the 21st birthday challenge on Saturday February 23.
“One driver is coming up from Hamilton to take part in the event and there a lot of locals interested,” Phillips said.
A record 550 exhibitors were set up. And there was a wider range of organizations – from large scale power companies to lifestyle products merchants – showing their wares, said Northland Agricultural Field Days president Lew Duggan.
“Olive oil, crafts, liqueur, paintings – I was amazed by the range of exhibitors in the lifestyle pavilion this year. And we had one exhibitor returning from Australia.”
One exhibitor happy with how things were working out was Pacific Wind associate executive Bob Bull who was showing an innovative wind turbine funnel design. He had seen a steady flow of traffic from Thursday morning.
“We have been talking to a steady flow of people and got some good leads out of the event.”
Duggan says the bright sunny days make for a good field days. “The weather is perfect for an event like this; there’s a bit of cloud cover so it doesn’t make it so hot to walk around.”
