Damp return for ANFD, but bright future ahead

It was not the big return Australian National Field Day organisers were hoping for after two COVID-cancelled events, but despite rain (and flooding) keeping crowd numbers down, exhibitors made strong sales and some are already planning a bigger presence in 2023.

“Obviously, it's a tough one to come back to with the weather not on our side,” Australian National Field Days Manager, Jayne West, said.

On the upside, she added, the conditions last week were actually far milder than predicted, but that still meant fewer people making the trip to Borenore over the three days of the event.

“We were pretty lucky, although we did have showers each day, but nothing like the 20 to 40 mils that they were predicting — and storms and winds and things,” Jayne said.

And interestingly, she said, exhibitors reported recording some of their strongest sales on the day with the fewest people through the gate.

“Most of them are really happy…and it was funny, a lot of them did most of their sales for agricultural implements — I'm talking sprayers and generators and mowers and things — on the first day, which was our least people through the gates,” she said.

“It shows that you need to get the quality buyer, or the person that's committed, that's coming to look for something rather than just the people that are coming for a day out.”

The Field Day’s Feature Exhibit, the Australian Industrial Hemp Alliance, was a hit with the crowd, although they too had exhibitors forced to pull out at the last minute due to flooding.

“They constantly had a stream of people going through looking and talking. They had six to seven talks each day that were really well patronised and it was great to see a lot of school kids going through because hemp and innovative crops is part of the syllabus,” Jayne said, who is already busy preparing for the 2023 Australian National Field Days.

“We've had [exhibitors] calling in during the event saying that they definitely want to be back in the site where they are,” she said.

“We've had quite a few that want to extend their site and double the size, which is positive. Even now, we're getting emails saying, ‘can we book in?’ So, that's really positive.

“But we will do a survey this week of all our exhibitors and ask for their feedback, so we'll have a bit of an idea of what they are after.”