Fieldays 2012 wrapped up on a high, with 128,271 visitors piling through the gates over four days.
Overall attendance for the 44th running of the agricultural show was up a healthy 9% on 2011, while the final day saw 30,292 visitors, a massive 40% up on the previous year’s Saturday.
National Fieldays Society CEO, Jon Calder, was pleased with the how the event played out, which had a strong focus on innovation and the changing face of farming – from a traditionally family owned model, to a more business orientated focus.
“I’ve met with a number of exhibitors and attitudes are positive. The value quality visitors brought to these businesses has been encouraging.
Andrew Giltrap of Giltrap AgriZone was pleased with his results, saying there is a lot of bouyancy and confidence in the market as farmers focus on debt reduction and increasing efficiency on the farm.
“We were really happy with our Fieldays showing, and it was one of the better ones we’ve had for some years. Our business has expanded its reach in the last few years, and that always takes some time to fully come to fruition, which we are now seeing,” says Giltrap.
“We had a lift in terms of direct sales over previous years too, and there will be more to come over the next few months that are currently in the pipeline.”
John Gerbich of UD Trucks says: “We’ve have been attending Fieldays for 19 years, previously as Nissan Diesel. Our goal has always been to get in touch with those people we wouldn’t normal see during our rep call cycles.
“Rural contractors are extremely busy and can therefore be hard to catch up with, or tie down for an appointment. We talked to a large group of people we hadn’t seen in some time, so in that regard it was very successful.
We had a number of our medium-heavy duty trucks on display, but it can be hard to judge sales as these usually happen offer the course of 3-9 months.
“We felt there was not a lot of positivity surrounding the state of the economy and the short term outlook, but the response to the product we had on display was very good.”
