Big Brother tracks farmers with GPS

Big Brother is watching a group of farmers during Fieldays to track their routes and stops around the event.

Vodafone is providing GPS trackers to 200 farmers visiting the event to provide data to the Fieldays Society, allowing them to improve the event in future.

Fieldays regular Malcolm Smith and his wife Nancy said it wasn’t a big deal for him to be tracked by the GPS devices.

“We always come here anyway to stay with my sister and she was the one that emailed me and said I should go for it [Vodafone Fieldays Footprints]. It doesn’t bother me and there is no trouble in doing it,” he said.

“Problem is that you’re not going to get much out of me, I go to pretty much every tent!”

Travelling from Hawke’s Bay, the Smiths have been attending Fieldays since 1985.

Each year their 240 hectare farm sees many improvements inspired by exhibitors at Fieldays.

“Bowers had these troughs a couple of years ago and I needed a bridge. Mine had just broken so I made a new one from upturned feed troughs. My innovative use of a cow trough,” he said.

Information such as how people move through Fieldays, dwell time on each site, and what facilities are most used will be collected over the four days.