increase font size
Peter Nation.
As the New Zealand Agricultural Fieldays gets underway this week the chief executive of the organisation running it says there is optimism in the dairy sector.
Peter Nation says while the last two seasons have not been good for the dairy industry, he senses things are looking up for the sector. He points to positive stories in the media and the industry producing innovative new products, notably the mozzarella cheese made by Fonterra.
“Comparing it with last year, we now have a tick in front of the dairy payout, sheep and beef are ok and overall the agricultural industry is in pretty good shape compared with what it was twelve months ago.
“It’s obvious that in the ag industry a bit of adversity makes them very quick at being able to think on their feet and look for improvement. We have seen this with kiwifruit, wine and pipfruit and it’s the same with the dairy industry.”
Nation says there is a lot of interest from overseas: of the 20 countries attending, eight have their own sites including the Chinese, Irish and British.
“UK Trade and Investment is back after nearly 17 years absence as an exhibitor. In the early days they had their own pavilion. We met with them last year in the UK and managed to lure them back. They seemed to be keen to reach out to this part of the world,” Nation says.
China is bringing two trade delegations – one farmers and the other agritech people. Also coming is the general manager of DGL which runs a huge agritech event in Hanover, Germany. Nation says the DGL representative has heard about Fieldays and now wants to see it for himself with a view to the two organisations working together.
“Last year we signed an agreement with the organisers of the National Ploughing Championships in Ireland to formalise our cooperation. With our blessing they have modelled their innovation centre on ours. In the long term we could end up sharing our innovation entries which would be great,” he says.
Nation says all this activity points to the fact that Fieldays is now recognised worldwide as a major agricultural event. 300 media from NZ and other countries will attend.
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 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.
Kiwi built to suit Kiwi conditions, the Fieldays reveal of its new 3-point linkage mounted e-Spreader will add another string to Hamilton-based SAM Machinery’s already extensive portfolio of fertiliser spreading tools.
LIC shareholders have elected a new North Island representative to the co-operative's Board, along with five representatives to its Shareholder Reference Group (SRG), following the company's Annual Meeting held in Invercargill.
Farmers across parts of Southland and South Otago are continuing to deal with difficult conditions after a prolonged run of wet weather, with pressure building around feed supply, stock management, pasture damage, farm infrastructure and everyday workloads.
Federated Farmers says it welcomes Labour's commitment to reviewing the Sharemilking Agreements Act, calling on other major parties to do the same.
For Canterbury dairy farmers Sian Meijer and Rick Wobben, wearable technology has become one of their most valuable on-farm tools - helping manage 1850 cows across an expansive, high-performing dairy operation while improving efficiency, mating outcomes and day-to-day decision making.
Fonterra has unveiled its annual results for the 2026 financial year, posting $27 billion in revenue and close to $20 billion returned to New Zealand farmer owners and unit holders.
The first major update to the Dairy Cattle Code of Welfare in more than a decade has been released, marking what DairyNZ describes as an important step in ensuring animal welfare standards continue to evolve alongside scientific evidence and on-farm realities.
