Optimum weather makes for great 2015 Northland Field Days

Optimum weather makes for great 2015 Northland Field Days: exhibitors, organisers

A MILD summer leading into three fine, clear days lead to steady to strong leads and sales at the 2015 Northland Field Days between February 26-28 say organisers and exhibitors.

While conditions for most of the country have dried, with soil moisture dipping to drought levels for some regions, the Kaipara and Whangarei regions enjoyed good levels of rainfall through November and December and good soil moisture levels in December, placing farmers well for strong production towards the end of the season.

This is in stark contrast to the last three years when most of Northland was gripped by severe drought.

Exhibitors say that visitors to the Northland Field Days rallied as a result despite poor Fonterra payout predictions, coming to the event with specific goals in mind.

Well over twenty thousand visitors flooded into the event to see a record 550 exhibitors according to organisers who say that exhibitors they talked to enjoyed stable to strong sales at the event.

"People often came up to me and told me how good this year was," said Northland Field Days President, Lew Duggan.

One exhibitor who enjoyed strong sales was the cattle handling equipment manufacturer Farmquip, with lower North Island territory manager Brendon Carr calling it their best event ever. "This field days has been the best so far. "

Carr attributes strong results to the strong beef schedule which gave his main customer base, drystock farmers, the resources needed to make capital investments they had previously put off.

"We tripled sales on the previous years and got lots of very good inquiries. "

While organisers were still auditing ticket sales they estimated that well over 20000 people had gone through the gates throughout the three days with Saturday being the busiest day of the event. " They knew what they wanted the previous times they spoke to us so this year it just happened. "

Isuzu, the winner of the best new site award, also enjoyed a strong year according to Stephen Moore, the dealer principal of Moore Cars, the Whangarei dealership for Isuzu and Kia.

Stephen sold a truck right on the closing of the Field Days and says that dealers on the stand were making deals on all three days. "The feeling was generally positive and the feeling I got was that visitors were more comfortable about spending money and making a decision on the day in contrast to previous years."

"Even though the payout was down the production was way up on last year and I talked to one guy was well ahead ofthe previous season despite the payout being down."

Organisers officially closed the Field Days on Saturday afternoon at 4pm and while Duggan says the sun had taken its toll on both organisers and exhibitors they were excited on what had been an incredibly positive event.

"2015 was a thrilling event and we are looking forward to the event in 2016," says Duggan.

"We have huge plans on making the event and the grounds even better than this year."

Held in Dargaville, two and a half hours Northwest of Auckland, 40 minutes west of Whangarei and one hour South of Kaikohe the Northland Field Days is a fun three day event .

Anybody interested on finding out what events are available can check out the Northland Field Days website: http://www.northlandfielddays.co.nz For media enquires get in contact with Gareth Gillatt at 09 436 1088 or 022 136 8805 or email him gareth@oddjobpr.com

ENDS

© Scoop Media