A true Kiwi ingenuity
The King Cobra raingun continues to have a huge following in the New Zealand market and is also exported to numerous overseas markets.
Water remains a hot topic, given the boom-and-bust cycles and the likelihood of restrictions and higher costs for the precious fluid.
Hence the appeal of Numedic’s Hydrofan nozzle: it washes dairy shed yards to high standards but uses less water than is customary.
The Rotorua company shuns conventional design, instead making a nozzle that emits a wide, fan-shaped stream whose high impact shifts muck as all get out.
The stainless steel units have a swivel at the hose tail; they are available in 32 and 38mm sizes to fit existing pipework.
Dairy News visited Waimanu Dairy Ltd at Coldstream, central Canterbury, getting insights on their water use. The farm milks 800 cows through a 54-point rotary shed from a 30m diameter collecting yard with an automated backing gate.
In a four-month trial with ECAN, the owners, Warren and Suzanne Harris and their son Robert, monitored daily usage, discovering the average daily use at the shed and collecting yard was 61.6m3 through washdown hoses in the milking shed and eight hockey style nozzles on the backing gate. It worked in part, but they still needed a twice weekly washdown of the collecting yard, taking one hour to shift the build-up the backing gate nozzles didn’t shift.
Switching to Hydrofan nozzles, and reducing the number from eight to five on the backing gate has markedly improved the efficiency of the cleaning process and cut water usage by about 12m3 per day. This saves 360m3 over a nine-month milking period.
Warren Harris says it has been an eye opener -- 20% less water used for washdown, less dirty water passing to the effluent storage system, less effluent pushed out to the travelling irrigators and a resultant cut in electricity use which at the time of the visit was yet to be quantified.
He comments, “the nozzles might be a little dearer than conventional plastic designs, but they’re proving to be durable. The swivel allows the fan to be used just like a brush and the overall result is it’s cleaner and all the time saves money”.
Labour's agriculture spokesperson Jo Luxton says while New Zealand needs more housing, sacrificing our best farmland to get there is not the answer.
Profitability issues facing arable farmers are the same across the world, says New Zealand's special agricultural trade envoy Hamish Marr.
Over 85% of Fonterra farmer suppliers will be eligible for customer funding up to $1,500 for solutions designed to drive on-farm efficiency gains and reduce emissions intensity.
Tighter beef and lamb production globally have worked to the advantage of NZ, according to the Meat Industry Association (MIA).
Groundswell is ramping up its 'Quit Paris' campaign with signs going up all over the country.
Some farmers in the Nelson region are facing up to five years of hard work to repair their damaged properties caused by the recent devastating floods.
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