You beauty! Buoyant farming sector sees business boom at Fieldays

Friday, 12 June 2026

Fieldays vendors say a buoyant rural sector has tills ringing as farmers look to futureproof infrastructure and upgrade old gear.

It follows increased confidence from farmers after dairy and beef prices reached record highs and Fonterra’s capital payment following its $4.2 billion Mainland sale to Lactalis.

Gallagher Pacific general manager Darrell Jones told the Waikato Times business was booming, with sales on the first day of the event up 40% compared to last year.

“It feels like things are coming right,” he said, adding it felt like Fieldays from before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Strong attendance and positivity at Fieldays was “a great indicator that the market is buoyant, farmers are confident, [and] the industry's in a good position”.

Innovation and finding solutions were at the forefront of farmer’s purchasing decisions, he said, with Gallagher’s new virtual fence garnering “immense” interest.

“It's disruptive for us as an organisation, but that is the future.”

Other products used technology to weigh and keep track of livestock, giving farmers data and insight into all of their animals.

While Jones reckoned those products were a capital investment for farmers, he said Gallagher also sold vermin bait for $7.50, which proved popular with a range of people.

Gallagher’s two Fieldays sites were manned by their entire New Zealand sales team, which in turn helped the organisation innovate new products.

“We get to engage with the end users and we get to hear what are the pains and gains that they're experiencing on farm,” Jones said.

“When we hear those pains and gains, that helps us with our innovation pipeline.”

While the sector was feeling positive, not everyone was splashing cash around. The fuel crisis has spiked fertiliser and feed costs, Jones said, and many farmers were focusing on paying down debt.

One vendor offering a solution to high diesel prices was Perkinz, a business selling submersible solar water pumps.

Steven Gullick said his boss reckoned it was their best Fieldays ever, and there was plenty of interest from farmers.

“The diesel price hasn't done us any harm,” he said, adding the solar pumps weren’t as expensive as people intially thought at $4000 to $20,000 per installation.

Farmers were “definitely spending now, which is good - it's good for us and it's good for them to have the money too”.

He reckoned they were keen to invest in new, innovative products.

“I've got a neighbour and anything like this, he just wants it, grabs it,” he said. “We're just putting an off-grid effluent pump [in for him], it's going to be the first one we're going to do.”

Toyota’s site was packed on Thursday morning with punters eagerly perusing the range. New vehicles senior manager James Denholm said Toyota had had a “very busy” start to the event on Wednesday, which followed a “strong start to the year” sales-wise.

Denholm reckoned it was a combination of factors, including a healthy rural sector, the fuel crisis driving EV sales and a new range of vehicles out.

“Plug-in hybrids are the perfect middle ground for people trying to transition, but the hybrid RAV4 itself, that’s taken off.”

He reckoned the fuel crisis had driven conversions and had seen an “attitude change” in farmers, who were starting to be more welcoming of the hybrid utes. . Sales appeared to be strong, leaving him optimistic for a ripper week.

Consumables and clothing were also flying off the shelves. When the Waikato Times visited the Stoney Creek site early on Thursday morning, it was already humming with punters looking for deals on everything from waterproof gear to wool jumpers.

Chief executive Brent McConnell was anticipating even more shoppers to flow through the doors as the day went on, with everyone from “prisoners to politicians” coming in to shop.

So far their entire range had been selling well, with the exception of wet weather gear - a fact McConnell attributed to the sunny weather.

The best part was seeing how positive customers from all backgrounds were, and farmers feeling confident.

“Everyone’s upbeat across all sectors, which is a real big thing,” he said.

“I've been down to Fieldays since I was probably four or five…you do see it's really strong.”

Over at Power Farming, the team was focusing on having conservations with farmers rather than selling them a tractor.

“It's actually an opportunity for us to connect with our customers,” marketing manager Mieke van der Walle told the Waikato Times.

So far, they’d had more than 500 people come through their site and they were also hosting politicians and speakers.

Farmers were positive, she said, but many were still paying down long-term debt, while others were holding off on making big decisions before the general election in November.

Punters wandering Fielday’s streets were enjoying soaking up the sun, but for many that’s all they were doing, with the majority of people the Waikato Times spoke to simply browsing or looking for free samples.

Renee Schicker was at the event on the lookout for a few odds and ends with her parents, including a rat trap ande socks and were on their way to check out ASB’s site. For Schicker, the event was mostly about soaking up the good vibes and the warmer weather - a nice change from last year’s mud.

The Adamson family were up from New Plymouth ready to make the most of the Fielday’s deals. The main thing on the shopping list was a new tractor.

Craig Adamson, a dairy farmer, said the industry was “positive, but farmers were still feeling cautious,” especially after the fuel and fertiliser spikes. The recent dairy payouts would be a help with funding the new tractor though. His son Riley, a true tractor enthusiast, said they were browsing for a New Holland tractor just over 100 horse power.