Fieldays is off to a subdued start in overcast and wet conditions, with the usual throngs of people turning for New Zealand’s biggest agricultural event reduced to a trickle.

The four-day event near Hamilton, which usually draws in around 30,000 people a day, has attracted about 1000 exhibitors – down by about 5 per cent from the norm, Fieldays chief executive Peter Nation said.

The event was canned in 2020 due to Covid-19 but was held in June last year in between lockdowns.

The onset of the Omicron variant meant this year’s Fieldays was put off from June – normally a quiet time for farmers – until this month.

Now that concerns about Covid have abated, is it business as usual for Fieldays?

“No definitely not,” Nation told the Herald at Mystery Creek.

“If you look back at 2020, when we could not run the event, we made a loss of $3.8m.”

Last year, the event attracted 91 per cent of exhibitors.

Nation said the rural sector was feeling challenged.

“I have been in the rural sector my whole life,” he said. “There have been lots of challenges dished up to the industry over the years.

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“This Three Waters legislation and carbon emissions are quite a big topic,” Nation said.

“We have got to talk about, and this is one of the places where that can be done.”