The first field day was held on a single day at Kyala Park, Forbes Road, on the property of the Dutton Family.

It was an outstanding success attracting 30 exhibitors and more than 5000 visitors.

The field days, the oldest consecutive event in Australia, is now one of the feature events on the agricultural calendar.

It started out as a day for local farmers to observe demonstrations of farm machinery and was organised by a group of local graziers and machinery agents with help from the NSW Ministry of Agriculture.

Farmers and machinery manufactures felt there was a need for demonstrations of new machinery and farming techniques following a post-war expansion in agriculture. 

Buyers also wanted more than a static display of machinery, they wanted to test and compare machinery them under practicable operating conditions.

The event moved to a two-day format in 1954 when it became known as the Orange Machinery Field Days.

Three years later it was extended to three days and has remained that way ever since.

As the event grew it attracted overseas interest from manufactures keen to reach the Australian markets.

An international flavour was introduced in 1964 when Japan was invited to be the first guest nation.

Each year there is a feature exhibitor that is either a guest nation or agricultural service.

Nations who have featured include the United States, China, Holland, Russia, United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland and India.

Prior to 1966, the field days were held on local farms close to Orange.

However, things changed when the co-operative was formed to run the field days and land was purchased at the current site at Borenore.

The main part of the event has been held at the Borenore site ever since.

Over the years the field days has been responsible for popularising new technologies.

Today the event is organised by a voluntary committee of 28 members, three part-time and one full-time staff members.

Many more casual employees and sub contractors are employed in the lead-up and during the event.

All these people contribute to a unique event that started from humble beginnings and today features 500 exhibitors and 20,000 visitors.

The field days will be held on-site at Borenore, 15 kilometres west of Orange on the Central Tablelands of NSW.