OpinionOpinion byDave HandleyNZ Herald·22 Jul, 2026 04:59 PM5 mins to readDave Handley is GM Agribusiness & Corporate Banking at BNZ More than 132,000 visitors went through the gates at Mystery Creek for the 2026 Fieldays. The event remains one of the best indicators of rural confidence, says Dave Handley. There is a different mood across rural New Zealand this winter.Not exuberance. Not complacency. Simply confidence.
After several years of cost inflation, weather disruption, policy uncertainty and margin pressure, farmers and growers are looking forward again. Conversations that were once focused on survival are increasingly centred on investment, growth,
