Tractors ease orchard’s disease management

Roughly 21km south-east of Napier, the Waima orchard has 60ha planted in kiwifruit.

With spraying, mulching and harvesting work all handled in-house, the orchard’s fleet of five tractors often gets a workout. Orchard manager Campbell Tacon says the workload is stretched even more by a 10km gap between blocks.

The arrival of Psa on three of the operation’s eight orchards two seasons ago added to the spray management demands, leading to the purchase of two new tractors, adds Tacon. 

“With Psa we’ve had to do a lot more spraying – up to 25 times per year.”

Developed especially for growers, the tractors, at 85hp and with 4WD, are at least twice as powerful as others in the orchard’s fleet and are the same height. This suits spraying and mulching. Spraying is done with an old model Typhoon sprayer towed behind the tractor.

The sprayer carries 2000L of water and weighs 2.5t but the Quasar 90s tow them easily at any time of the year, allowing operators to get in and spray for Psa after rain and frost protection when it is needed most. 

“Because they are 4WD we don’t need to worry about wet patches; that’s different from our existing fleet.”

The extra power also comes in handy when dealing with vine trimmings, Tacon says. 

Leaves and vines are mulched into the ground using a 2m Berti, easier with the new tractors. “We like to mulch because it puts the nutrients back into ground.”

With 8/8 transmission these are the first tractors in the fleet to have shuttle shift capabilities, aiding manoeuvrability in combination with their 2.9m turning radius.

The workers are known to vie for use of the new tractors for a days work. “It’s nice to have the good gear. It runs up and down the road fast and works smoothly.”

With 10km between patches, road speed was an important factor, explains Tacon. “The geography of the blocks is spread out a little so having a tractor capable of driving at 40km/h is useful.”

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