A solution to forestry's woes
Forestry is never far from the news, not least because of the damage attributed to slash washing downstream during storms.
Gore machinery importer Agriline has recently been appointed New Zealand distributor for Kirpy Rock Crushers, manufactured by Layrac in southwest France.
Aimed at bringing marginal, rock bound ground into production for cropping or grassland operations, the manufacturers claim the process is cheaper than rock picking, a process that usually causes more stones rise to the surface.
Crushing rocks or stones to a depth of 400mm means that rocks will not resurface for many years, if ever. NZ supplied machines have already seen service crushing schist in Central Otago and notoriously hard river stones in Te Anau.
The BPB and BPS ranges are capable of crushing material from 400mm down to 30mm in the case of the former, and 500mm down to 20mm in the case of the latter, both in a single pass.
Machines are said to be made for the task with robot welded frames using high grade steel and protected by Hardox plating in vulnerable areas.
The full-width rotor has replaceable tungsten-carbide hammers that act against a hydraulically adjusted anvil with hydro-pneumatic overload protection. Other key points include twin belt drives and sealed labyrinth style bearings.
Complementing the crushers is the Kirpy Ripper that uses solid legs to get to working depths of 500mm to pull rocks to the surface ahead of the crusher – extremely useful for opening up pugged or panned areas in all types of paddock.
Former Agriculture Minister and Otaki farmer Nathan Guy has been appointed New Zealand’s Special Agricultural Trade Envoy (SATE).
Alliance Group has commissioned a new heat pump system at its Mataura processing plant in Southland.
Fonterra has slashed another 50c off its milk price forecast as global milk flows shows no sign of easing.
Meat processors are hopeful that the additional 15% tariff on lamb exports to the US will also come off.
Fears of a serious early drought in Hawke’s Bay have been allayed – for the moment at least.
There was much theatre in the Beehive before the Government's new Resource Management Act (RMA) reform bills were introduced into Parliament last week.