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Farm machinery at National Agricultural Fieldays, Mystery Creek - Source: ONE News -
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The four day Fieldays event wrapped up in Hamilton on Saturday and while it's traditionally a place where farmers spend up large, with cuts to commodity prices and dairy payouts, the question was whether or not farmers were still prepared to open their wallets.
With the recession hitting farmers, the crowd at Fieldays was down around 10% on last year's record 130,000, over the four days.
"It's definitely down, talking to people that have been here for years that we know well, and we notice ourselves as well, there are less people walking past," says Colin Brown, exhibiter.
Farmers this year were buying based on "need" not "want".
"I don't think we've got the cash flow we've had in the past, so you've just got to sort of knuckle down a little bit, but there is things that you save to buy only at the Fieldays," says one punter.
While it was the wettest Fieldays in 10 years it did not deter the bargain hunters.
"They're looking to haggle and do the deal and there has been some great deals out here," says Barry Quayle, Fieldays General Manger.
It is thought overall sales will be down on last year's $300 million.
While there wasn't a lot of interest in the big ticket items, little ones sold pretty well.
"Last year was our record year and we did seven tractors at the Fieldays and this year, we've still got some cheques to get yet, but we've probably done five," says Stuart McFarlane from Doug McFarlane Tractors.
With more than 1,000 exhibitors relying on Fieldays to help boost their bottom line, they will be hoping that by next year, farmers have been able to pull their way through the economic mire.
