Deals

Jonny's View

Jonny Elder, and wife Michelle, farm 460 ha’s of fairly heavy, clay soils on rolling country near Balfour in Northern Southland. They run ewes, fatten lambs and have a mix of beef calves and Friesian bulls.

Jonny’s focus, in choosing implements, was cutting down on passes. While fairly happy with his Falc Rotoking, (“They’re good for breaking up turf and lumps and coping with rocks”) he decided to trade it in and upgrade from his F model to the wider, heavier G model.

Jonny says the heavier G model is better at dealing with the rugged terrain and achieves a good seed bed – after just one pass.

He uses the Rotoking either directly behind the plough, or for a second pass after discing-up winter crops. Brassicas are typically in the ground for 1-2 years, and then back into young grass.

Jonny says the Rotoking cuts down on the tractor use, considerably. And it’s not too hard on the tractor itself either.

“In our situation, it saves a fair bit of time. And anything I can do to save on time is valuable.”

- FarmChief Falc Rotoking

Scott's View

Scott Croft farms 250 ha of crops, 650 Perendale sheep, and Angus cattle in heavy country at Lakeside, Canterbury. His crops include wheat, barley and grass-seed, Watties peas, and radishes.
Scott says his previous plough was simply getting a bit old for the task of turning over more than 80ha a year.
A fan of ploughing; “It’s a good way of breaking up the ground here, especially where there’s a bit of compaction”, Scott says he got his 5 furrow Agrolux from FarmChief for a demo to see what it could do. “It ended up staying here.”.
Scott says he’s had no problems with the plough and it has proved its worth, burying stubble and crop residue and giving a clean finish.

- Agrolux Ploughs

Grant’s view

Grant and Nikki Kearins have a 230 ha dairy farm at Kairanga, on the outskirts of Palmerston North on flat, heavy to medium country.

Grant said he’d been looking around for some power harrows and thought FALC had a lot of good features. That initial impression has been confirmed by their performance. “It goes really well. The big diameter packer roller just keeps working through.”The 5 metre power harrows are currently used across around 50 hectares of the farm. “I had the horse power, so I decided to go for it. It certainly covers the ground.” “It seems well built and reliable.  All around, a nice, reliable machine.”

- Power Harrow

Colin's view

Colin Molloy runs a 420-sow piggery, along with 130 hectares of cropping and livestock, in Sheffield, Canterbury with two large effluent ponds.
Although it was the advanced hydraulics that first drew Colin to his Veenhuis Profiline 16600 litre Slurry Tanker, he is also acutely aware of the need to successfully manage environmental issues and soil fertility. The tanker enables him to recycle the nutrient-dense manure and reduce odour in one go.
His tanker injects the effluent back into the soil providing a great start for barley, wheat, and pasture and removing the nuisance normally associated with conventional “broadcast” systems.

- Veenhuis Slurry Tankers

Stephen’s View

Stephen and Helen Rome, and son Scott, farm 530 hectares between Balfour and Riversdale in Northern Southland on soils that are predominantly heavy clay and alluvial river flat. Stephen has been working the family farm for over 30 years, growing cereals, running sheep, finishing lambs and grazing cows and heifers.

His interest in the NSL Chisel Plough was driven by wanting to reduce cultivation time. “We didn’t want to be continuously ploughing.”  To date it’s been used following cereal and short rotation crops such as kale which have been grazed by heifers or lambs.

Stephen has bought a bit of gear over the years from FarmChief, and says their fliers had kept the company and its brands to the fore. “They’re very good to deal with and nothing is a problem.”

He says the Chisel Plough, which is combined with double wavy discs, have been “very good” has done a good job of breaking up lumps, and got to a useful depth. “They’re also economical to operate.”

- NSL Chisel Plough

Frank’s view

Frank and Cheryl Grigg, run 180 cows on 70 ha (55 ha effective), with an 18 ha run-off, in Taranaki on a combination of peat/swampy soils and clay rolling hills. They also have an effluent pond 100 metres long and between 30 and 60 metres wide that, not too far back, was causing them a problem.

Frank explains.

“We used to get the pond pumped out every winter, and the ground it went on was unusable. “There had to be a better way.”

Frank says Matt from FarmChief showed him a video, on his phone, at Central Districts Field Days that provided a system with the solution: A Storth pond stirrer and 6,000 litre, 8 ton tanker combination.

Where the stirrer especially fitted Frank’s needs was its ability to mix the slurry, giving a product that is smooth and uniform- making more nutrients available for pastures and removing the solids that can limit pond capacity.

And, as Frank says, it was faster. “It was amazing. What used to be 5-6 hours work was done in just 2 hours with one stirrer, and with less horse power.” He uses the effluent tanker behind the cows, and says it’s made a significant change, with paddocks put back into rotation seamlessly. “It works very well now.”

Frank said he used to rely on top-dressing to keep production up but now finds the effluent recycling does the job for him. He also appreciates the benefits of add-ons including the tanker’s ability to efficiently clean out water troughs ready for the next season. “It saves time and you’re all ready to go.”

“It’s a great system and very easy to use. And FarmChief are good people to deal with.”

- Pond Stirrier