Gongs for best field days site
Among the regular exhibitors at last month’s South Island Agricultural Field Days, the one that arguably takes the most intensive preparation every time is the PGG Wrightson Seeds site.
Replacing a battered old Portacom, the new 12m by 20m building houses an office, lobby, large committee room, and accessible toilets with shower.
The building epitomises the steady development SIAFD has put into the Kirwee site since it was bought about 10 years ago as the permanent home for the biennial event.
This year's committee chair Andrew Stewart is coy about the price but says they always wanted a permanent office and finally took the plunge, knowing building costs would only get dearer.
They have also renovated many of the shingle tracks, with a new track into the carpark and a new loop through the lifestyle section, to help weather-proof the site.
"What we found the worst was everyone trying to set up on the Tuesday when it was wet.
"All of them coming in their cars and that was what made the most mess. It tended to be the smaller sites.
"We just keep chipping away. Every year there's something new happening," he says.
Following this event, they will also install an irrigation well, removing their reliance on water from the neighbouring farm.
While there are power lines across the property, they are not connected to the national grid to avoid year-round fixed charges and are powered up with generators for each event.
But a permanent connection is now being established for the new administration building and the well, and they need fewer generators this year.
"Now that we're putting the well in, we've got quite a big transformer going in," says Stewart.
"It's always been in our thinking that we needed to be self-contained at some point.
"Working through consents and stuff is a bit challenging but we're getting there."
