Finance

STUART’S VIEW

The Diskacrop is also a recent purchase of third-generation commercial grower, Stuart Briant. Gisborne-based Stuart works 400 hectares of flat to rolling country including around 100 hectares, annually, of maize for seed and for feed. Some specialist varieties end-up in products ranging from flour to cornflakes, and corn chips.

Stuart’s “20-odd year old” discs had done a lot of hard work and needed to be upgraded, “We used them all the time. It was either re-build our discs or get new ones,” Stuart says. As it turns out, he traded-in on the Diskacrops.

Stuart says what appealed about the Diskacrop was the gain in efficiency and ability to do more in one pass.

He will be using the Diskacrop, which is a recently new addition to his cultivation system, to disc grass and fallow paddocks ready for maize crops and for squash.

“They’re good, I’m quite impressed with them.”

- Diskacrop 500 Heavy Duty Speed Disc

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

Doug’s view.

Caldwell Contracting have been leaders in their field for over 20 years, covering all aspects of agriculture from silage to wood chipping to cultivation and effluent management and spreading. You can learn more at www.caldwellcontracting.co.nz Doug Caldwell says the substantial family business, which operates out of Edendale, Southland, is constantly looking for innovations in effluent management and understand the needs of the dairy farmers they work with. “The Storth Mega Mix has been good. It’s safer and faster than others. And it’s definitely better than conventional stirrers. “We use it for mixing all ponds and also loading our transport tankers.”

- Storth Mega Mix

Barry’s view

Barry Lawry farms 200 cows on 78 hectares in Te Awamutu on heavy, rolling country. In addition, he contracts and sub-contracts using his Harry West 3000 Dual Spreader. Barry credits the spreader with giving him an additional avenue into contracting. His original Harry West Spreader saw out about 20 years hard work. And he’s now bought a second. Which, as he says “must say something about them.” Barry collects mostly from weeping walls, herd homes, and separators, then spreads the nutrients back on the paddocks where they belong.

- West Dual Muck Spreader

Graeme’s view

Graeme Burnett has a 300ha milking platform and 250ha run-off on flat to rolling country at Dacre on the Southland Plains. It’s fully self-contained, doing all its own cropping.
Graeme’s introduction to an Airseeder was through loaning one from his neighbour. “I had an older seeder and I was looking to upgrade.”
As a result of his informal trial, he took advantage of a FarmChief Southern Field Days deal to buy his own Airseeder and hasn’t looked back. “It’s reliable and it does everything we wanted.”
“Probably the best thing is how easy it is to calibrate. It’s one button. Five minutes, and I’ll be away. Anyone could work this.”
Graeme says he’s found the accuracy of the Airseeder is reliable down to a single cupful of seed.
He uses it for re-grassing, sowing 45ha of kale, plantain, summer turnips, and barley. “It works really well.”

- Airseeder

Campbell’s view

Campbell McArthur farms 263 hectares of flat land at Pendarves, Canterbury, in crops including; wheat, barley, oats, processed peas, seed peas, red beets, ryegrass, broad beans, and linseed. Between crops, he grazes lambs. Campbell’s goal was to find a way to effectively integrate crop residue into the ground, ready for the next season’s crops. There were a couple of important considerations behind his thinking: Increasing concerns around burning-off (including bans after the 2017 Canterbury Port Hills fires), and the stringent demands of his local irrigation scheme’s environmental plan, which doesn’t favour ploughing. The Express Plus 6000 Speed Disc had already been on Campbell’s radar and was a pragmatic choice. He says he particularly appreciates the implement’s robustness and precision engineering. “It’s very well made”. He can’t fault its performance. “It does a really beautiful job.”

- Express 6000 Speed Discs