Lumberjack Stirling Hart. Photo: Heather Mayrick

By Sonia Beale

The current lumberjack world champion shows a crowd of captivated onlookers how it’s done when he clambers up a towering 40 foot pole at the Fieldays Carters stall.

The ‘ginger ninja’, also known as 21-year-old Stirling Hart from Vancouver, Canada, has been climbing trees since he was a four-year-old, which explains his record-breaking ability to climb an 80 foot pole in just 18.7 seconds.

A harness consisting of a hemp rope, a pair of spurred boots, gloves, and a big blue mat is the only safety net.

“It’s just such a novelty, and it’s cool to be the centre of attention,” he jokes.

Mr Hart has been the feature of the show for two years, and is glad the weather has turned out well for the amount of pole-climbing he will be in for.

“I’m really happy it’s not raining this year,” he says.

After scanning the crowd and prompting potential competitors to volunteer to climb the pole, an eager young woman puts herself forward for the challenge.

She is half way up the pole, when MC, and show creator Ben James, gets going.

Stirling Hart in action. Photo: Heather Mayrick

“It’s about here the legs start to burn,” he says.

“Nah!” She says, shaking her head and clinging to the pole mid-air.

“One more stop and she’s nearly there – do you want to stop?”

“Nah!” she says, the stoic trooper that she is.

On she goes until she has reaches the top and rings the bell. The crowd cheer, and the victorious competitor descends the pole to safer ground.

Ben James has been doing the Ramsey Roundwood Lumberjack Show at Fieldays for the past eight years, and at gala events around the country for the past ten years.

“It’s a great way to travel the country, and meet a whole bunch of interesting people,” he says.

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NZ Army Band. Photo: Erin Strong

By Iris Riddell

The Fieldays is reverberating with the big sound of brass.

The New Zealand Army Band is out in force this year, and they are hard to miss; you can hear them clear across the grounds.

Band master Tristan Mitchell said this is the third time they’ve performed at the New Zealand National Agricultural Fieldays, and the experience is a change from the usual events they play at. “It’s different, marching around, performing to a rural type of crowd, which in some ways is great because they wouldn’t normally get to see us, just due to their location and where they live. It’s great for us to be able to perform for them.”

The band formed officially in 1964 to support the New Zealand Army’s ceremonial and state military occasions. Since then it has developed into a 42-piece brass band, supported by a rhythm section, keyboard, guitars and vocals to allow more variety in performances. They don’t limit themselves to traditional big band marching pieces, either – they incorporate movie soundtracks and even pop songs into their repertoire.

“We keep with the Top 40 on the radio, just to stay with the times and keep moving forward. We have songs by New Zealand artists like Dave Dobbyn and Dane Rumble, and American artists like Michael Jackson.”
The 35 member band is based at Burnham Military Camp near Christchurch. “I’ve been in the band for 17 years; it’s fantastic. It’s a great career, a good lifestyle. You get to travel around New Zealand and other parts of the world, too. You end up living and breathing it, really.”

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Chef Al Brown cooks up a storm. Photo: Erin Strong

 By Tony Stevens

What better way to kick off Fieldays than with a classic Kiwi breakfast cooked by New Zealand’s own celebrity chef Al Brown?

The ‘Hunger for the Wild’ presenter is displaying his culinary expertise for starving bellies throughout Fieldays in the designer kitchen supplied by Kitchen Studio. He will be demonstrating a range of tasty recipes made from produce found in the Kiwi’s Best marquee, where exhibitors are showcasing some of New Zealand’s finest culinary delights.

Brown’s first demonstration was a sizzling kiwi brekkie with caramelised spuds, scrambled eggs, gourmet sausages and the crowd favourite, blood pudding.

A Kiwi brekkie is one of Brown’s favourite meals to prepare, but he is worried it is in danger of becoming extinct.

“I don’t think we eat as many cooked breakfast as we used to, especially with all the doomsday health warnings out there. I grew up on a farm where we used to eat a cooked brekkie every morning, and I really miss it,” Brown said.

What’s the secret to a good Kiwi brekkie? According to Brown, it’s salt and pepper. In fact he claims these kitchen basics are the key to any good meal.

“I’ve said it a million times before and I will say it again, salt and pepper is the magic of cooking. If a meal is seasoned well it’s magnificent,” Brown said.

Fieldays is an important occasion for the culinary king, with this year’s event his third as the celebrity chef.

“Fieldays is an opportunity to meet wonderful people with wonderful products, so I try to utilise it all in my cooking.

“New Zealand has really gone from zero to hero in thirty years in the food industry, and Fieldays is a great example of locals turning primary products into something great.”

“I can’t choose who the best is. It’s like saying what colour you like. They’re baring their souls out there!”

If you don’t get enough of Brown here at Fieldays you can look forward to his new series Coasters screening on Channel One later this year. It follows the celebrity chef as he traverses the coasts of New Zealand, exploring how Kiwis interact with the coastline, indulging in the odd spot of fishing, and of course cooking. Brown will also be signing his new book Go Fish for Fieldays visitors after his cooking demonstrations.

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Warwick Johnson has been involved with Fieldays for more than 40 years. Photo: Dion Mellow

By Iris Riddell

When Warwick Johnson goes to the Fieldays, he says he tries to keep a low profile.
That could be easier said than done, given the 77-year-old’s extensive background with the event.

Warwick was among the group of men who founded the Fieldays 42 years ago.
Over a cup of tea in his office/house on Airport Rd, Warwick counts the names off on his fingers.

“You had Don Llewellyn from the university, Gordon Edgar from Ruakura, Vaughan Jones from Alfa Laval, Fraser Graham… all those different people, they were characters who welded together to create a consortium of about 30 guys.

“I strut around like a turkey at the Fieldays, I suppose. I go into the visitors’ lounge and meet people from overseas and it can be quite emotional. Never, ever, ever did we dream it would get to the magnitude it has done.”

The Fieldays started its life at the Te Rapa racecourse, but it soon became clear the event needed its own patch of land.

“Me being me and knowing this area, I said ‘out this way there’s sand, there’s a suitable piece down there’, so they all walked down there and bought the property like that.”
Warwick runs Johnson’s House Removals and has been in the business for 62 years.
He’s put these skills to good use out at Mystery Creek.

“I did the entire historic village that’s there. I knew they were coming, so the hospital house, we got that for free. At Ngatea we picked up a little church and put that down there, likewise the blacksmith’s house and the jail, we could have gone on.”
He was also responsible for shifting the Bledisloe Hall to the Fieldays site.
“I’ve laughed a lot over the years. Every job has humour in it; you can’t let the job get to you.”

Over the course of his career, Warwick has shifted thousands of structures, including houses, churches, coolstores, concrete buildings, as well as DC3s, helicopters, tractors, bulldozers and the Waikato Wars gunboat, SS Rangiriri.

“These are things I’ve done all my life, moving and shifting houses, so they are saved rather than destroyed. I can see the merit in that.”

Tom Smith and Ros Empson of Smith Pickering Architects worked with Warwick on the Rangiriri restoration and describe him as having a “heart of gold”. “He still acts as though he’s about 30 or 40. He was carrying around these great big beams for the Rangiriri, things like that,” Tom says.

There is a plaque with Warwick’s name on it in the historic village, near a little footbridge. “When I’m dead and gone I want my ashes spread there.”

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Tessa Paayman's 'Tui-tara' entered in the under-21 category of the AgArtwear Awards. Photo: Geoff Ridder

By Bianca Stedman

For  Tessa and Charlotte entering the Fieldays Ag Art Wear competition is addictive.

 Charlotte Lind, 22, from Te Awamutu  has been competing since 2005 and this will be third time round for 15-year-old Tessa Paaymans from Hawkes Bay. Both women had winning entries in last year’s competition.

 Tessa’s experience with the Ag Art Wear competition has given her motivation and focus towards pursuing a design career.

“It has helped me figure out exactly what I’m going to do when I leave school and where I’m going with it.  Seeing my garment walk down the runway is the most incredible feeling – knowing that it is your design and you made it.”

Charlotte also values her experience in competing and recommends it to other budding designers.

 “It’s a way to get a taste of the fashion industry, and why not do it when it’s at our back door step and not in Auckland?  It also makes you grow, every time you do it you grow a little more.”

The Ag Art Wear Competition was initiated by General Manager of Mystery Creek Events Centre Barry Quayle, in 1994, to “challenge designers to create a piece of farm art for the body.”

According to Fieldays organisers it also provides a platform for many designers into their design career or enables up-and-coming designers to challenge traditional design elements and expose their creative abilities.

Each year there are three regular judging categories in which designers can showcase their creativity.  Designers are challenged to create wearable art from materials sourced from or used on the farm in three categories:  Designer-Traditional; Under 21; and Avant Garde .  Each category has differing entry requirements including garment style types, material choices, and designer age.  Garments are judged in line with these requirements and this year there is a fourth category of Landcare Awareness with its own entry requirements.

NZ National Agricultural Fieldays communications advisor Ariana Tucker says Landcare Awareness challenges designers to explore the environmental conscience of land-based farming.

“The creations should utilise natural fibres found on the New Zealand landscape and must have a strong supporting story regarding the Landcare Awareness theme,” she says.

Last year Charlotte won the Designer Fibre category, the first time it had been offered.  She  chose the Designer Fibre category because she used cow hide as the main material of her garment.  Charlotte found her inspiration directly from her family farm.

 “I got my idea from the cows in the paddock at home.”

Tessa won the  Under 21 award in 2009 and is trying to take it home for  a second year, along with trying her hand at the Designer Traditional category.   Her Designer Traditional gown is called “Pink Delicious” and  was inspired by international fashion icon Oscar de la Renta along with Tessa’s home of Hawke’s Bay.

 “It is based on Oscar de la Renta gowns because they are stunning and flowing and gorgeous!  This is what I was aiming for in my gown.  Hawke’s Bay is also an influence because it is the fruit bowl of New Zealand, we have lots of orchards and in spring there are blossoms all around so the colour of my gown which is baby pink comes from that.  Also the name delicious is the name of an apple and the top is made from hand-made rosettes, like blossom.”

Tessa’s second entry this year will be for the ‘Under 21’ category and is called “Tui-tara”.  Based on an animal rather than clothes Tessa had a choice of categories that her garment could be entered into.

“I chose Under 21 over Avant Garde because as I’m only 15 l think my design will get further and I will be up against people closer to my own age.”

 “Pipe Dreams” was Tessa’s winning entry in 2009. She used irrigation piping and zip ties in her winning garment and in doing so learnt how to work with fibreglass and use a grinder.  Creating fashion with unconventional clothing materials and working the tools to do this allows designers to show talent not typically linked with fashion.

“Definitely it’s a great opportunity to show off your creative skills and also your ingenuity because it can be difficult to find agricultural products to use and a fun challenge,” says Tessa.

According to Fieldays organisers submissions for the Ag Art Wear competition get more original and innovative as designers produce outfits that challenge the way we relate fashion and farming.  They claim the popularity of Ag Art Wear means the publicity of the competition reaches audiences beyond the typical Fieldays visitor.

Judges assess garments according to appearance, the innovation in material use, the originality of the design, its artistic element, and its overall impression, with judging based on visual inspection.

Cost is a consideration when designing garments and entering the competition.  Both Tessa and Charlotte live outside of the Waikato and this adds to the expense.

“For me because I live out of town it means I have to drive up to Mystery Creek and also with the products I’m using it’s ended up being costly.  For both garments altogether it will be around the $1200 mark,” says Tessa. 

An appealing option is to find sponsorship, which is what Charlotte was able to do, from a business in her home town of Te Awamutu.

 “Time is my biggest cost; it takes up all your spare time for a while.”

Prizes for winning entrants range from $2000 for the Avant Garde section to $1200 for the Designer Traditional section.  But Charlotte says prize money isn’t the driving force behind entering.

 “I enter because I love doing it “. 

Competing has been a positive experience for both Tessa and Charlotte, with Tessa admitting the one downside of the competition for her.

“It’s the suspense when you are waiting for your category winners to be called out.”

The Ag Art Wear show will take place in the Spantech Pavilion 11am to 2pm daily during Fieldays

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Innovation Tree. Photo: Dion Mellow

By Kelsey Fletcher

A two-and-half tonne sculpture of metal pitchforks, wagon wheels, hand tools, and more is set to be unveiled by Prime Minister John Key at the opening ceremony today. The Innovation Tree, created by well-known Hamilton artist Marti Wong, is a representation of the old and new farming ways and was commissioned to fit with this year’s Fieldays’ theme of Innovation for Future Profit.

Most of the farming equipment in the sculpture was donated by the Ag Heritage Village at Mystery Creek. The sculpture is in front of the Mystery Creek Pavilion. Ag Heritage Village curator Terry Harpe thinks the tree is a good representation of old farming equipment and said Mr Wong did a good job with what he had to work with.

“It’s very creative and imaginative with a humorous depiction from old to new,” he said. Wong said although The Innovation Tree was a completely different kind of work for him, he enjoyed making it. “The idea was to show the developments in innovations in the past that people probably take for granted now. It will be good to see some of the older things that the older people would recognise that the younger people won’t.”
Wong has been producing paintings and pastel drawings for 20 years. He took up scrap metal sculpture five years ago. He uses recyled metal materials for his works and says he enjoys seeing how the works evolve.
The Innovation Tree sculpture took him about three weeks to make.

“The whole idea was to make it tall. It was a bit of an organic project depending on what I had available,” he said.

The opening ceremony will be held on the Village Green at noon today.

To read full issues of the Fieldays Exhibitor, click here.

Murray Swan with his winning sculpture. Photo: Dion Mellow

By Kelsey Fletcher

Pukekohe artist Murray Swan walked away from the 2010 Fieldays No.8 Wire National Art Award $4000 richer after he took out first place with his entry Wood ’n Post. The announcement came at the awards ceremony held at the Artspost Galleries and Shop in Hamilton.
Interviewed some days after the event, Mr Swan said he was still buzzing the following weekend from the occasion. “I think overwhelmed is the only word that described the feeling,” he said. Judge Karl Chitham said Wood ’n Post demonstrated a “clever twist” on the medium. “The winning work demonstrates a real engagement with the physical and conceptual possibilities of the iconic No.8 wire and it shows a clever twist on the use and reading of the medium.”
The work transposes the usual roles of the materials in fencing and the post is made from No.8 wire, while all the usual metal attachments (staples, nails, barbed wire) are made from natural fibres.

Mr Swan said he had been working on Wood ’n Post since March 2010 and had finished in June. “It probably took about 60 to 80 hours to make it, but it needed 45 years of practice.” He said the wire was a hard medium to sculpt.
“It was difficult deciding what to make, why to make it and how to do it.” Mr Swan said he encountered many difficulties weeding out the ideas and designs, straightening the wire and making the wood, barbed wire, and staples. However, it’s not stopped him from starting his design for the 2011 award.

Napier’s William Jameson placed second for Wireless Connection and received $1500 in prize money. Third place was shared by Wellington’s Rose Petterson for Tree of Knowledge and Hastings’ Philippus Meier for Ball of Wire, with each receiving $500 in prize money. Mr Chitham said all the finalists’ entries showed a sense of humour and a “real kiwi-ness”.

The annual award, which has become renowned for the ingenious and unique entries it attracts, was launched in 1997 and challenges artists to create a sculpture from No.8 wire. It’s co-ordinated by the Waikato Museum, held at ArtsPost, and is sponsored by the National Agricultural Fieldays.

The Fieldays President’s Award was won by Jessica Turnball’s The new New Zealand Flag and a ‘People’s Choice Prize’ will be awarded to the artist who receives the most public votes during the course of the exhibition.

The finalists’ work will be exhibited at ArtPost until June 28.

To read full issues of the Fieldays Exhibitor, click here.

Students and staff successfully produced a daily newspaper for each day of Fieldays. All the issues of Fieldays Exhibitor are now online (below).

A team of writers, photographers and graphic designers will be busy each day out at Mystery Creek and in Wintec’s mezzanine computer lab.

Read the issues below as they’re produced:

Fieldays Exhibitor Issue #1

Fieldays Exhibitor Issue #2

Fieldays Exhibitor Issue #3

Fieldays Exhibitor Issue #4

By Salina Ghazally

Fieldays newcomer Greenpeace is pushing the harsh but real message that farming is the biggest greenhouse gas emitter and there needs to be a shift in agriculture practice.

The organisation’s debut comes in the form of a “Tried and True” dairy exhibit.

Visitors can seek advice on how farmers gain from low-input, low-impact, farming.

According to Greenpeace New Zealand’s senior climate campaigner, Simon Boxer, in order to pass on healthy farms to future generations, farming practices need to prioritise sustainability.

“Caring for our land and helping cut our greenhouse gas emissions is vital if we’re to ensure that our farming sector survives and prospers.”

Above all, he says, current intensive farming methods are threatening the clean, green brand the country is renowned for.

“Farmers built our clean, green brand long before the tourism industry started using it – it is something priceless to New Zealand on the world stage, yet through no fault of their own, the intensification of the industry is now damaging the brand,” says Mr Boxer.

In recent years, climate change campaigners have successfully targeted the energy sector, encouraging a shift to renewable resources. But they are now focusing on the bigger greenhouse gas culprit – farming, which produces half of New Zealand’s emissions.

Farmers can reduce these emissions up to 30 per cent by the “Tried and True” system with a “win-win situation”.

Mr Boxer says Greenpeace also has a lot to learn about agriculture. “We are also here to listen – there is still plenty more to learn from farmers and people in the industry.”