increase font size
Farmers Louis and Angela English, Dipton says umbilical spreading system is more straightforward to operate.
Fifth generation farmer Louis English and his wife Angela milk 850 cows on a 335ha family farm at Dipton West, Southland.
They have employed an umbilical spreading operation on their farm to help.
Having installed a wintering barn about six years ago and seeing an increase in effluent, they employed contractors to do umbilical spreading for the first two seasons, experiencing mixed results.
At the time, they also ran an effluent tanker, but didn’t like the fact it would have taken around 500 trips to and from the paddocks to empty the effluent pond. “This would heavily damage the lanes and I didn’t want to see this happening,” said Louis.
“We found it a lot easier to go into a paddock once, do the spreading and go back out, instead of going in and out multiple times with the tanker. The splash plate system on the tanker also resulted in heavy contamination of the sward, so there was a major delay before we could resume grazing.”
They approached Webbline to look at potential solutions. Louis says, “we did the numbers and worked out it was going to be more efficient and effective to use our own gear, and ended up purchasing an umbilical system with a 9m dribble bar and 1,600m of hose”.
The system includes a Bauer pump powered by a 160hp tractor system that generally pumps around 200,000 litres per hour to the dribble bar that is handled by a 150hp tractor. At the heart of the spreading system, designed and manufactured by Mastek in Ireland, is the Supercut Macerator, a hydraulically driven cutting rotor that chops any fibrous material in the effluent.
At its heart, six knives chop the material before it passes via 45mm diameter outlets to the dribble bar. Manufactured from heavy-duty galvanised steel, with a transport width of only 2.6m, the dribble bar assembly features outlets across the full spreading width, depositing effluent from a flexible pipe close to ground level. This eliminates odour, loss of nitrogen to the atmosphere and keeps sward contamination to a minimum.
They note that it is easy to see the grass growth where they have been in with the dribble bar, compared to other areas of grass.
“It is a lot more straightforward to operate than it looks at the start; you just need a plan on how to get around obstacles and oddly-shaped paddocks,” says Louis. “With the flow meter in the cab, you can pace yourself for optimum application with the schedule supplied by Webbline, which shows speed needed for the correct rate of application.”
The arrival of new F8 and F9 designations for its 8000 and 9000 series forage harvesters, signals a swag of upgrades from John Deere, highlighted by topping the 1000hp mark for the first time.
Waikato-Bay of Plenty farmer Hugh Jackson recently secured this year’s FMG Young Farmer of the Year title in Invercargill.
Ashburton-based Carrfields has signed an agreement with Manitou to take over the distribution and retail rights for Manitou Agricultural Equipment covering the lower North Island and the South Island, effective August 1, 2025.
With June ending and following the most upbeat National Fieldays for several years, tractor dealers are reporting a lift in sales.
Samasz distributor FarmShop has introduced the new XDF Series Front Mowers, said to be refined for local conditions and to improve cutting precision and wear resistance.
NZPork has appointed Auckland-based Paul Bucknell as its new chair.
The Government claims to have delivered on its election promise to protect productive farmland from emissions trading scheme (ETS) but red meat farmers aren’t happy.
Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.
OPINION: Should cows in NZ be microchipped?
OPINION: Legislation being drafted to bring back the controversial trade of live animal exports by sea is getting stuck in the…
