Post Fieldays

The Fieldays have come and gone. Considerable numbers visited our site and we had many good conversations with very interested farmers, advisors and consultants. None-the-less, it will be a while yet and quite a bit of following up before we know how fruitful the whole exercise has been.

Going to the National Fieldays is an expensive exercise, especially if you are, like us, headquartered in the South Island. There's travel, transportation of equipment plus accommodation and the cost of the site. It all adds up. I noticed in last weeks "Farmers Weekly" (21 June 2010) that some of the farm equipment people are starting to question the cost of representation at the Fieldays and the timing of the event. They are questions that have to be answered. There is a difference between demonstrating to groups of dedicated and interested potential clients and wasting time satisfying the curiosity of people who are only there to look and who have no intention of buying. To this end it could be that the National Fieldays have grown too large for their own good. Maybe there is more value to be had at the smaller field days such as the Southern; Central Districts and Northern Field Days. It's something we will give serious thought to.

To be fair, one of the real values of the National Field Days is networking with other folk in the Agricultural Business. For that splinter of time, we are all in the same place and there are dynamics that can be made use of.