Ashburton farmer wins Wheat 82

Press, 4 March 1983, Page 20

Ashburton farmer wins Wheat 82

Highest net profit from the 1.C.1.-Tasman Wheat 82 competition held at Lincoln College was achieved by Ashburton mixed-cropping farmer, Mr Anthony Pannett.

Mr Pannett’s winning net profit was $772.07 a hectare, and his yield from a plot of Rongotea was 5.66 tonnes. He received a $5OOO travel grant donated by 1.C.1.-Tasman. Ltd. at a function at Lincoln College last night.

Plots in the competition were half a hectare, with the results calculated on a per hectare basis.

Second place in the competition was filled by Mr Hugh Horn, of Oxford, whose net profit was $760.93, and whose crop yielded 5.39 tonnes. Mr Horn received a Protimeter Grainmaster moisture meter, valued, at $5OO, donated by Max Cheshire, Ltd.

Third place went to the Vontaar Syndicate, of Ashburton, with a net profit of $722.95, and a yield of 5.22 tonnes.

Mr Hom also won the grain quality section of the competition and received a trophy donated by the Association of Bakers and $5OO donated by the Wheat Board. There was less than $59 difference in net profit between the first and third places in Wheat 82. while the difference in yield was less than half a tonne.

Eight different management strategies were followed by the competitors, and this is shown in the results, particularly the costs incurred. Over all the competitors the costs ranged from nearly $455 a hectare to just over $230.

Mr Pannett incurred costs of $382.57 for his prize-win-ning plot, while the hectare costs of the second and third plots were $338.63. and $341.93.

The three place-getting plots were all planted with Rongotea, while one plot planted with Oroua yielded 5.37 tonnes, a higher yield than the third placegetter. Two comparison plots were grown on the Wheat 82 site under competition conditions by Mr Bede McCloy, a farm adviser in agronomy with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in Christchurch.

One plot was intended to demonstrate the M.A.F. management package approach to growing wheat, and was planted with Rongotea. A more conventional approach was used on the other plot, which was planted with Kopara. The M.A.F. Rongotea plot returned a net profit of $785.49, and yielded 5.33 tonnes.

The Kopara plot returned $623.39, and yielded only 4.33 tonnes.

Each of the three placegetters used nitrogen fertiliser on their wheat, but none was used on the M.A.F. management package plot.

The cost of the nitrogen fertiliser used by the three ranged from $5O to $7O a hectare.

Net profit of the other five

growers in the competition ranged from $666.27 to $553.15. and yields from 5.37 tonnes to 4.28 tonnes. Costs incurred by these five were from $444.41 to $231.22.

Grain samples produced by all competitors had high percentages of screenings. Dr

Warwick Scott, senior lecturer in plant science at Lincoln College, said last evening. Dr Scott said all samples had more than the maximum 3 per cent level allowed by the conditions of the competition. “While all competitors had

their share of small and shrivelled grains, the largest proportion of the screenings was made up of grains that had been damaged during threshing." he said.

“Grain moisture content at harvest was a low 10 to 11 per cent, and this probably caused the grains to become more brittle and easily damaged."

Dr Scott said one compete tor had thrown up to 0.2 tonnes a hectare of grain out of the back of the harvester during harvesting. “The loss could have been reduced considerably with better harvesting technique, so the message is clearly that if you set your header up right, you will reduce your losses," he said.

A condition of Wheat 82 was that all harvesting should be with the same harvester, but timing and settings were the responsibility of each competitor.