Piggery effluent polluting stream
Waikato Regional Council has sought an interim Enforcement Order from the Environment Court to stop piggery effluent from entering a waterway north of Te Aroha.
While New Zealand plays catch-up and Europe leads in using farm effluent, it was always going to fall to the North American continent to go large — very large.
At the recent Euro Tier 18 event in Hanover, Germany, the Canadian company Cadman showed off its self-propelled slurry pump and reeler system called the Continuous Manure Applicator (CMA).
Offered in three versions, all powered by a DPS (John Deere), 9.0L, 375hp engine, the CMA 5500 carries a whopping 853m of 139mm diameter delivery hose.
The applicator unit, carried by a tractor in the paddock, has a swivelling connector arm to keep the supply hose in the same position when the tractor makes a headland turn to begin a return run.
The CMA is synched to the spreading tractor by GPS, with the system paying out or re-winding the delivery hose at the same rate as the tractor’s travel speed.
At the headland, when the tractor makes a turn to set up for the next run, the CMS automatically moves forward to keep the hose in alignment for a straight pull.
The unit is said to achieve outputs of up to 200 cubic metres depending on material consistency and ground topography. The manufacturer says the key benefit of the system is its use in row-crops such as maize — even crops 1m tall — with no physical damage to the plants.
The machines are designed to be moved between jobs by a tractor about 350hp.
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Regional councils are welcoming the certainty for councils in today’s Resource Management Act (RMA) announcement by the Government.
ASB says the decision to sign on to the AgriZeroNZ joint venture came out of a wish to be a part of the solution.
Federated Farmers says changes announced to the Resource Management Act today mark the end of the war on farming.
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