$52,500 fine for effluent mismanagement
A Taupiri farming company has been convicted and fined $52,500 in the Hamilton District Court for the unlawful discharge of dairy effluent into the environment.
Applying liquid manures or farmyard effluents to standing crops of forage maize is largely unheard of in New Zealand, but the practice is gaining ground in Europe.
Precision drill manufacturer Vaderstad will use the Agritechnica event in November to launch such new technology for its Tempo V6-12 drills to make the practice much easier.
Its WideLining system is the world’s first tramlining system which enables farmers and growers to spread liquid manure in a standing crop without compromising yield potential.
Rather than shutting off row units to create tramlines, the system automatically changes the row spacing on the planter hydraulically, to create two 1050mm tyre tracks, so ensuring all row units plant at full capacity. In the body of the crop, the row spacing between the tyre tracks will reduce from 750mm to 600mm without compromising plant numbers.
Integrated into Vaderstad’s iPad-based, E-Control system,
when activated, the machine will calculate the field size and automatically adjust the row units to create tramlines based on the working width of the liquid manure spreader.
In practice, when planting silage maize with an eight row planter and intending to use a slurry tanker with a 18m working width, the drill will plant 8.3% more seeds in the field than alternative technologies now available.
Academic Dr Mike Joy and his employer, Victoria University of Wellington have apologised for his comments suggesting that dairy industry CEOs should be hanged for contributing towards nitrate poisoning of waterways.
Environment Southland's catchment improvement funding is once again available for innovative landowners in need of a boost to get their project going.
The team meeting at the Culverden Hotel was relaxed and open, despite being in the middle of calving when stress levels are at peak levels, especially in bitterly cold and wet conditions like today.
A comment by outspoken academic Dr Mike Joy suggesting that dairy industry leaders should be hanged for nitrate contamination of drinking/groundwater has enraged farmers.
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