Strip-till offers major savings
The Fookes family farm at Korakonui, just south-east of Te Awamutu in the Waikato.
With farmers and contractors looking to reduce crop establishment costs, the arrival of increasingly accurate GPS and a range of specialised implements, may make 'recreational' cultivation a thing of the past.
Experts suggest that excessive cultivation is damaging soil structure, often bringing poor sub-soils up into the growing levels.
There is also the impact caused by loss of moisture and fine soils to the wind. Add to that the cost of our cultivator metal and high fuel costs, then new techniques are sure to be adopted in the coming years?
Strip Tilling is a technique that allows minimal soil disturbance, reducing cultivation costs by only cultivating a narrow band of soil where the crop is going to be established. It leaves the ground between rows unmoved and brings land back into production much more quickly.
Masterton-based importer and distributor Tulloch Farm Machines offers the Strebel SAG 16 Strip Tillage System, aimed at establishing maize and fodder beet crops throughout New Zealand.
The machine that takes the outward form of a rotary cultivator, but underneath, the traditional rotor is replaced by a unit that carries a series of "milling units" that only cultivate a band of ground where the crop is to be established.
With an overall width of 3m, the machine can be configured to prepare four rows at 75cm or six rows at 50cm spacing. Ahead of each of the rows is a subsoiler leg that can operate at depths of up to 25cm. This breaks up any plough pan, before passing soil to the rotor, which can operate to 15cm working depth for breaking down into a finer seedbed.
Rear of the milling heads, an infinitely adjustable packer system sees sectional units behind each of the four or six rotors. These reconsolidate the ground, leaving a level surface for subsequent operations. The lateral extremities of the main rotor housing feature extended side panels to create a definitive edge for the worked strips.
Manufactured using Hardox steel for durability and an extended working life, power input is 1,000rpm. It has a cam-clutch overload protection set-up, with a 4-speed main gearbox and gear-driven, lateral oil bath drive to the main rotor. Speed adjustment via the main gearbox allows operators to quickly adjust rotor speeds to ground conditions or required forward speed.
As an option, a Cat2/3 rear three-point linkage can be used to carry a precision planted. Or the installation of a front-mounted hopper can be specified to incorporate fertiliser into the prepared tillage strip ahead of the rotor.
Meat co-operative, Alliance has met with a group of farmer shareholders, who oppose the sale of a controlling stake in the co-op to Irish company Dawn Meats.
Rollovers of quad bikes or ATVs towing calf milk trailers have typically prompted a Safety Alert from Safer Farms, the industry-led organisation dedicated to fostering a safer farming culture across New Zealand.
The Government has announced it has invested $8 million in lower methane dairy genetics research.
A group of Kiwi farmers are urging Alliance farmer-shareholders to vote against a deal that would see the red meat co-operative sell approximately $270 million in shares to Ireland's Dawn Meats.
In a few hundred words it's impossible to adequately describe the outstanding contribution that James Brendan Bolger made to New Zealand since he first entered politics in 1972.
Dawn Meats is set to increase its proposed investment in Alliance Group by up to $25 million following stronger than forecast year-end results by Alliance.
OPINION: Ageing lefty Chris Trotter reckons that the decision to delay recognition of Palestinian statehood is more than just a fit…
OPINION: A mate of yours truly recently met someone at a BBQ who works at a big consulting firm who spent…