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FERTILISER SPREADING speed and accuracy have risen for a Timaru dairy farm manager since he began using Tracmap, the company says.

Chris Edge, milking 830 cows on 220ha at Pleasant Point, west of Timaru, first had his whole property digitally mapped by TracMap, then six months ago began using the company’s TracLink farm fertility and nutrient management system. Traclink allows use of a computer to order fertiliser and to select the paddocks to be spread. The software interface allows the farmer to note the type of fertiliser to apply, volume, supplier, timeframe for applying it, any notes on application and the area it needs to be spread on. 

All fertilizer is applied on the Edge farm Temuka Transport, who until January 2012 relied on Edge noting the required fertiliser applications on a farm map, and leaving it in their letterbox for the truck drivers to collect. 

Now Edge nominates paddocks from a computer map, this information being sent directly to Temuka Transport’s GPS systems. 

This has greatly simplified the process, Edge says. “Our internet connection is very slow; I can submit an order in 10 minutes, or five minutes if the internet is quicker.”

Software allows farmers to overlay previously made orders as the basis of a current order and Edge says this also cuts down the time needed to order fertiliser.

“You can tell exactly where you’ve put on fertiliser in the past and you can use that for the basis for where it needs to go.”

Besides being able to highlight paddocks for fertiliser application, the farmer can use a software function that allows him to exclude areas in paddocks where he doesn’t want trucks to go.

Determining these locations is easier with Traclink than it was off a paper map says Edge. “The Google Earth map is pretty fantastic so you can work out where all the wet spots in the paddock are 99% of the time.” 

Edge hasn’t used this function fully; “We will put that to the test in late autumn when there are areas we want them to dodge out of.”

Tel. 0800 872 262

www.tracmap.co.nz