Small Seeds, Grain All In Bulk

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31262, 7 January 1967, Page 8

Small Seeds, Grain All In Bulk

The Grays at Otaio, in South Canterbury, harvest wheat, cocksfoot, chou moellier, and perennial ryegrass in bulk and they also store it in bulk—the small seeds are bagged only when they have been machine dressed with their own plant.

Three adjoining properties totalling slightly more than 1000 acres—two belonging to Mr J. G. Gray and one belonging to Mr J. L. Gray—are worked as one, and off these properties about 200 acres of cocksfoot and 30 acres of chou moellier are harvested. This season 35 acres of perennial rye grass is also being saved for seed. Sometimes a little clover and crested dogstail are taken as well. In addition, there is about 150 acres in wheat. Wheat has now been handled in bulk for three seasons, and the small seeds were handled this way for the first time last year. “We have found that bulk handling has cut down a lot on manpower—it is just impossible to get manpower,” said Mr J. G. Gray last week. In addition to Mr Gray, a brother and his father, a young lad is employed at harvest time only. “If the seed is put In right there do not seem to be any problems, but you have to be very careful all the same,” he said, discussing bulk storage. Of the economies of the practice Mr Gray is in no doubt The Grays now have seven corrugated-iron silos which hold about 45 tons of grain each. Where they are put up with farm labour, Mr Gray says, they will pay for themselves in one season. Last year the wheat stored on the property brought in an extra £650 through storage increments. The grain goes off the farm in about August-Septem-ber.

Two header harvesters are used by the family—one 12foot cut machine and the other a 10-foot cut. Most of the wheat is brought in from the bulk harvesters on a farm tip truck with four-foot high metal sides on it, but there are two other pieces of equipment for moving grain and seed from the harvest field to the silos or bins in sheds. One of these is a lime spreader on a four-wheel trailer with a drag chain for unloading, and in 1965 Mr J. G. Gray built a metal bin 16 feet long and about sixfeet high from the unloading auger in the bottom to the top of the sides. Mounted on a set of double wheels and tractor-drawn it is designed mainly for handling cocksfoot.

Seven Silos Five of the seven grain silos are made to Department of Agriculture plans with vertical corrugated-iron sheets, but two more added recently are made of curved sheets of iron with the corrugations on the horizontal instead of vertical. In all of these bins the wheat can be dried if necessary. Wooden ducts may be placed in the silos and the fan used, driven by a tractor or a hay baler motor, can dry two silos at a time. So far wheat has only had to be dried in the,first season the Grays went into bulk handling, and the aim is to harvest the crop so that it can be stored without drying. The cocksfoot and chou moellier are both windrowed before being harvested and with the ryegrass are brought into two sheds for storing in a series of about six bins lined with iron. In these bins the seed sits on reinforcing mesh, covered with scrim, supported on concrete blocks so that it may also be dried. For windrowing chou moel-

Iler the Grays take the conventional platform off their windrower and fit a platform of their own. This includes a sft high vertical knife and there is an open space behind the 10ft long lower knife so that the crop can feed through. Even under the most difficult conditions, with the vertical knife cutting through the crop it has been found that about two acres an hour can be windrowed. For three seasons now the Grays have had their own seed dressing plant manufactured in Christchurch. Last season including seed handled for a relative and a neighbour they put through some 1400 sacks of cocksfoot, ryegrass, chou moellier, crested dogstail, and clover. Mr Gray says that before they had the plant, seed dressing was costing them more than £lOOO a year. After three seasons of work he considers that the plant probably does not owe them a penny now. Furthermore they have had no trouble with their homedressed lines of seed. It is only when the small seeds are dressed that they go into bag awaiting disposal.