South Island Agricultural Field Days 2025 brings hands-on machinery demos, cutting-edge agritech, and a thrilling new Cowboy Challenge to Kirwee
This year’s SIAFD (March 26-28) continues its dedication to enabling farmers and contractors the ability to get up close and under the hood of some of the most innovative, modern agritech and equipment on the market today.
Field Days committee chair Andrew Stewart says the Kirwee event promises to give farmers and contractors the ultimate opportunity to inspect, test and drive equipment in an environment as close as possible to what they would be using it in.
“We’ve always prided ourselves on being the field days where the equipment is accessible. But so too are the people who sell and understand that equipment, having them on hand to really help potential buyers have a detailed, informed look at what that piece of kit can deliver for them.”
Alongside this, the Farm Trader team will be onsite hosting a Machinery Showcase, putting selected machinery through its paces in a working environment with a panel of experts, and sharing live updates and footage from the event, with a fully in-depth review of each machinery in its following issue.
“The Kirwee field days has a really authentic connection to the business of farming, and to ag machinery, and we love being part of it,” says Farm Trader owner Jaiden Drought.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity to see the newest machinery in action, and interacting with the punters and fellow site exhibitors is always awesome.”
Also launching this year is a change in the timetable around traditional demonstrations, to also include a presentation walkaround for participants.
Accessibility to the equipment and the ability to see it being demonstrated has been expanded further with the addition of an earthmover-excavator demo area. The earthmoving section will complement the crop and pastoral harvesting demo area.
Dedicated hard work from the voluntary committee means crops used in the demonstrations will be well established giving a real-world impression of how the equipment harvesting them performs.
Along with the biggest and brightest shiny hardware, agritech has also always been an integral part of the displays at the field days.
Andrew says this year the latest in large scale drone technology is likely to draw strong interest.
“The technology behind the drones means they are bigger and more powerful than even a few short years ago, with significantly greater crop spraying and monitoring capabilities. Canterbury is the ideal, and most likely, place to see this gear operating commercially.”
While the 2023 Field Days were lashed by unexpectedly heavy downpours just prior to kicking off on day one, making access in some areas challenging, there has since been significant investment and improvement to the Kirwee site, with additional shingle laneways laid down and boosted raceway shingle on existing laneways.
“Regardless of what mother nature brings this time, we are well set up to cope, and of course hope we see the usual run of warm, sunny weather you’d expect for the time of year,” says Andrew.
“There’s also an elevated level of anticipation for this year’s event, thanks to a lift in good news coming out of the farming sector and with it a greater level of optimism among farmers.
“The first half of the 2024-25 farming year was tough. But since Christmas there has been considerably more good news about commodity values, and we are picking many farmers will be keen to bring forward plans they may have had for upgrading or replacing equipment they have held back on.
“The South Island Agricultural Field Days is certainly the place to come to for weighing up your options,” he says.
There will also be an action-packed equestrian event guaranteed to be a crowd pleaser when the Cowboy Challenge kicks off.
Held for the first time, the challenge is a competition designed to test the partnership of horse and rider as they weave through a series of obstacles along a time course. Judged on performance and horsemanship, the event is a thrilling spectator experience for all ages.
With over 600 exhibitors booked and preparing their sites, this year’s event promises to be one of the biggest on an expanded area that has been upgraded for access with shingled laneways and accessible demonstration areas.
“The field days are an essential event for anyone engaged in agribusiness and farming, and we are more excited than ever to bring together such a diverse range of exhibitors to highlight the innovation and expertise in the sector,” says Andrew.
Photos by The Records with Heather & Doug