Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Agriculture minister heads for Royal Show in Hastings

By Doug Laing
Hawkes Bay Today·
9 Oct, 2019 05:00 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Action from the World Cup showjumping event at the 2018 Royal New Zealand Show in Hastings. Photo / File

Action from the World Cup showjumping event at the 2018 Royal New Zealand Show in Hastings. Photo / File

Minister of Agriculture Damien O'Connor will be a special guest at the Royal New Zealand Show which will be held at Hawke's Bay Showgrounds Tomoana on October 23-25.

The appearance has been confirmed by Hawke's Bay A and P Society general manager Sally Jackson as the countdown starts for the first of Hawke's Bay's annual A and P Shows during the summer.

It will be followed by the Central Hawke's Bay A and P Show in Waipukurau on November 14-16, the 2020 Wairoa A and P Show on January 16-18, and the Dannevirke A and P Show on January 30-February 1.

The Labour Party MP for West Coast-Tasman will speak at a midday luncheon on the second day of the show which ends on the Hawke's Bay Anniversary public holiday.

Predecessor Nathan Guy had a similar role as a National government Minister of Primary Industries in 2016.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

After a year of planning the show countdown has started, with the closing of entries across dozens of competition classes, including almost 3000 in equestrian events.

It will make it one of the biggest equestrian shows in New Zealand, at the home of the biggest of them all, the Horse of the Year Show, which will be held in Hastings for a 20th year in a row, on March 10-15.The big feature will be the annual World Cup New Zealand qualifying event which will feature the top horses and riders in New Zealand.

Competition figures across the spectrum of rural life, with the traditional sheep and cattle sections and classes for other animals, as well as agri-sports such as axe sports, sheep dog trials, farm fencing, and the show's Great Raihania Shows, which hark back to what is believed to have been the first machine shearing competition in the World, at the Hawke's Bay show in 1902.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Jackson will also be taking to the shearing board, having been with shears organiser and Hastings contractor Colin Watson Paul a driving force behind "Women and Wool" which has drawn seven women from the their professional careers into learning to shear in a Farmstrong fundraiser to be held on the showgrounds historic shearing pavilion on the night before the show starts.

There is a "public helpers" working bee at the showgrounds on Sunday, and the major "committee, friends and family" working bee on October 19, as the show starts to take shape with the development of its village of marquees and the next day's arrival of amusement attractions from the Poverty Bay show in Gisborne.

The first Royal Show in New Zealand was in 1924, and it has been held mainly annually under the auspices of the Royal Agricultural Society of New Zealand.

For many years it was rotated Hawke's Bay, Manawatu and Waikato shows in the North Island, and Canterbury and Southland in the South Island, A and P shows in the South Island.

Discover more

Stone-throwing teens target seal colony forming in Hawke's Bay

09 Oct 05:00 PM
Business

Signpost points to Hawke's Bay as the centre of the world's wine regions

09 Oct 12:54 AM
Business

Uber has arrived in Hawke's Bay. So what's it like?

09 Oct 12:55 AM

Mitre 10 Mega walk bigger and better every year

13 Oct 11:00 AM

Since 2001 other shows have been able to apply to stage specific Royal title events, and in 2006, the RAS entered a contract with the Canterbury Show to run the Royal Show each year.

The arrangement ended in 2010, the Royal Show was held in Hamilton in 2011 and 2012, and then hosted by and A and P society and business consortium in 2013.

The failure to go ahead in Feilding in 2014 led to Hawke's Bay being awarded the event, and the Royal Show has been held in Hastings each year since 2015.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay

Hawkes Bay Today

'We have you surrounded': Police stood down after Hawke's Bay stand-off, search continues

Premium
Hawkes Bay Today

Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay
Hawkes Bay Today

Motorist dies after four crashes in 40 minutes in Hawke's Bay

Some roads remained blocked.

17 Jul 06:02 AM
'We have you surrounded': Police stood down after Hawke's Bay stand-off, search continues
Hawkes Bay Today

'We have you surrounded': Police stood down after Hawke's Bay stand-off, search continues

17 Jul 04:06 AM
Premium
Premium
Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa
Hawkes Bay Today

Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa

17 Jul 04:00 AM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP