Field Days - Where are they at? - By Dwain Duxson

By: "Farm Tender" News
Agribusiness News
Mar 17, 2019
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Extracted from the Farm Tender Weekly Newsletter. Register to get the Weekly email Newsletter to your inbox each week.

Field Days have been such an important part of the Ag scene for many a year now and have provided so much for the local communities that surround them. I also must mention the many volunteers that put up there hand to help their local organisations like the local Footy Club who benefit greatly from these events.

They are also really good social occasions where Families can go, Dad or Mum and Sons or Daughters can go round together, friends can catch up and in this day and age where mental health is a priority, a day away from the Farm can only help.

I will take my usual positive hat off and replace it with a dose of realism. For the record, I have just attended the Wimmera Machinery Field Days and by no means is it about them alone, even though that experience is fresh in my mind.

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It was estimated by one regular exhibitor that the exhibitor numbers could have been down as much as a third on last year. Now that might be extreme but let's say it's a quarter, well that's still alot.

So what this creates is the tumbling effect (yes I made that up), but how it works is that once the exhibitors start dropping off the patron can see that, and they actually spend less time at the event. They then question whether to go when it comes to decision time for next year. And once the patrons drop off, then the exhibitors don't get the numbers through there sites, and they start asking questions to themselves.

They usually stick it out for a couple of years and say things like, "we need to be seen" or "I don't want to give my competitor and free kick" or something to that effect. Also for some of these companies, it costs them alot of money, time and effort to show their wears for 2 or 3 days.

Also, these events have diversified somewhat and have shifted some of the focus away from Ag and more to the general interest patron.

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As for us, we have been going to these events for over 9 years now, and at one stage we were doing up to 24 a year. They have served us very well, and helped build our brand and our valued database. But today, they are less relevant for us from a business sense but more of a catch up with the customer thing.

The cold hard facts of there being fewer Farmers around, the internet, and how people can research stuff so easily, the fact that they will put a job on the Farm ahead of a day out at the Field Days is where Farmers are at right now. The drought hasn't helped either.

So where are they at right now?

Having been front and centre of many years, I do think they are a shadow of their former selves, and I know every committee across the land would be trying to rack their brains on how they can get back to those glory days. These dedicated committees have to believe they can do just that.

It might be that they reduce the number of days they operate, or these events might have to try and attract more general interest exhibitors and reduce the cost of entry to try and attract people that way. A case in point is the Australian Wool and Sheep Show in Bendigo (albeit the cost of entry is comparable), where they get massive numbers of people through the gate and apart from the actual Sheep Show and Sheep displays the majority of exhibitors fit into that general interest category.

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But by going this way, it will take the focus off Ag and each Field Day might have to make these choices as the value of these events to the local communities far outweighs and decision to not do anything and possibly die.

The more Northern Field Days like AgQuip (Gunnedah, NSW) and FarmFest (Toowoomba, Qld) are all free entry events and sting the exhibitor more, but I think they are experiecing some of the same issues

Your thoughts?