Raewyn Overton-Stuart explains an educational toy to Theresa Makiwa. PHOTO/ LAUREL STOWELL
The new, mechanised, technological face of New Zealand farming is writ large at the Central Districts Field Days.
Yes, there are people strolling in gumboots and jeans - but the goods and services they look at are 21st century.
And oh, how it draws them in - a total of 30,000 visitors are expected, and traffic slowed to a crawl as the first field day opened on Thursday with cars parked row after row across the grassed area at Feilding's Manfeild Park.
Inside the gates it was like a small town, with streets of stalls and displays - about 600 in total. Then there were areas of food stalls and tables, an arena where gigantic diggers did their stuff and marquees for special collections.
The ASB Innovation Hub was the place for workshops and events, including a workshop on stock water reticulation in hill country and seminars on farm technology.
The field days are part of the larger Agrifood Investment Week, which also had a sheep milk conference and the Ballance Farm Environment Awards on Thursday night.
The stalls had lots of information, with Horizons Regional Council staff available to quiz about water quality and Health Ministry special support services staff to talk to sawmill workers at risk from exposure to pentachlorophenol (PCP).
Dubbed "the best day of the year off-farm", the event is also a social occasion. Turakina's Roz and Ewen Grant had mainly come to catch up with people, and said their bank always shouted them lunch.
"We're not looking for anything in particular ... but you never know."
Whanganui and Rangitikei people took advantage of the crowds to market their products or services. Citi-Box Containers was there, with a series of former shipping containers made into rooms.
Emmetts Civil Construction was there, and along the road was Neil Crosse, who sells and consults on liquid fertilisers and soil conditioners on behalf of New Plymouth-based company AgriFert.
He said he came every year, mainly to talk to people who use the products.
Jonathan Parson, director of Whanganui's Ethan Outdoor Furniture, was sharing the space with him. He didn't come every year because work was usually too busy.
His business has 14 staff and uses sustainably harvest timber from Ghana to make long-lasting wooden outdoor furniture. It sells direct within New Zealand, and also has a distributor in the United Kingdom.
"We sent a 20ft container load to the UK three weeks ago, and we've got another one to go in two weeks," he said.
Raewyn Overton-Stuart's PAUA early childhood home-based care business has been at the field days every year for the last five years. It offers free face painting for children under five.
"Often it's the first port of call for the parents, and it's a good promotion of the shop," she said.
PAUA can help rural people because its educators are available outside the hours of most childcare centres - handy for farmers and sharemilkers.
Mrs Overton-Stuart started PAUA 13 years ago, and it now has 33 visiting teachers and 300 in-home educators, spread from Kaitaia to Christchurch.
In the Cuisine of Central Districts tent was Maddison Parlato, 17, selling her family's Pheasant Creek wine. She said it was the very last vintage.
The Parlatos 3000 vines were grown on 1.2-hectares in Onepuhi Road, near Marton, and it was a time-consuming hobby for her parents, Shane and Tessa Parlato.
With Maddison and her twin sister Chelsea heading off to university next year, mjum and dad will lose their workers, and they sold the property late last year. The new owners may not make wine - which means Rangitikei has probably lost its only vineyard.
Pheasant Creek wines have mainly been sold at events like the field days, and in Marton and Palmerston North supermarkets. The chardonnay has been called outstanding.
Saturday is the last of the three field days, running from 9am to 4pm.