Farmer tackles SIM irrigation development

Press, 25 May 1984, Page 16

Farmer tackles SIM irrigation development

Faced with an irrigation development bill of $1 million, a Culverden farmer. Mr Dougal Norrie, decided to do all his own borderdyking.

He reviewed the progress so far, with one quarter of his 800 ha property facelifted, during a recent field day organised by the Amuri branch of North Canterbury Federated Farmers.

It was a credit to the Amuri branch organisers as well as evidence of the widespread interest in Mr Norrie’s progress, that many farmers turned out on a cold and often wet day.

Those who did attend could not have been disappointed.

On the Norrie property three or four major topics were covered and in the afternoon, on the property of Mr Paul Gardner, a comprehensive display of direct drilling equipment was staged and the M.A.F. cropping recommendations for the district presented. Dougal Norrie’s property, called Ballindalock, is bounded on the north by the Pahau River, the south by Balmoral Plantation, the east by the main road and the west by the old Waiau branch railway line, and it is split by the boundary between the Waiau and Balmoral irrigation schemes. With a total of 800 ha (2000 acres) of land, it was apparent that for the area to be fully developed for irrigation that the cost would be over $1 million, Mr Norrie said.

The options he faced were to sell one title to pay for development on the remainder, sell out completely or do his own development by contracting to the Ministry of Works in the same way as the other five or six earthmoving contractors now working in the Waiau area.

He decided to go into contracting, using his own labour, as well as that of his family and employees.

Tractor-drawn equipment was used at first. This was

a four-wheel tractor pulling a Midi-scoop, a levee blade or a land leveller.

As he gained in confidence. especially in the exacting work of calculating and marking out levels and falls, he moved into bigger machinery. He bought an International Harvester E2ll scraper for $35,000 and a big grader for $60,000. These machines greatly increased the pace of development and 120 ha were graded last year.

The bigger machines require more expertise but with hired labour and increased interest from family members, Mr Norrie has forged ahead. He is presently receiving from the M.O.W. the contracting average for the district of about $7OO per ha. His big machinery cost is $4O per hour and he says the contracting work is coming in on the right side of the ledger. It does require perserverance, however, and sacrifices for him and his family. But flexibility to work the development to his own timetable and avoid unsuitable ground or weather conditions are other advantages mentioned by Mr Norrie. All construction of dams, sills and access ways is being done by the Norrie enterprise as well, and plans for the future include the irrigation development on another family property of 200 ha. The first section of Ballindalock to be irrigated, on the north-eastern corner of the property near the corner of Long Plantation Road and the main highway through Culverden, is in the process of transformation into a dairy unit.

The 120 ha unit is in the process of acquiring a 32bale Rota-flo dairy which is the first of its type in the South Island and is capable of putting 350 cows through in one and a quarter hours. Farmers attending the field day were able to see the new $120,000 dairy as a hole in the ground with two concrete dishes inside.

The inner dish will eventually float on thousands of litres of water contained in the outer and the turnstiles will be built on a third concrete platform standing on the floating dish. The whole assembly, cows included, will then be able to be rotated with only a half-horsepower electric motor. The contained water can be used for washing down and then be topped up between milkings. In other respects the Rota-flo is a standard rotary shed, with the cows walking on and backing off. Automatic cup removal is also being incorporated. The sharemilker, Mr Martin Hay, will begin production this spring with 180 cows, including 160 heifers, so he will have his work cut out in making himself and the cows familiar with the new set-up. Mr Hay is a diesel mechanic and owned a small farm at Ellesmere before coming to Culverden. He told the field day that sharemilking was expected to turn his $40,000 deposit into $340,000 worth of cows and machinery in five vears. He would then be

looking for his own farm. Depending on who puts his first cow through the new sheds, Martin Hay will be either the second or third dairy farmer to go into production in the Waiau scheme.

Mr Alan Henning began last year on a property just north of the Pahau River from the Norries. The Pahau Reserve Partnership between the A.M.P. Society and a dairy farmer, will also begin milking this year. Pahau Reserve is over the other side of the main road from Ballindalock. This transformation of the country around Culverden is being wrought by irrigation water and the mechanics, or perhaps hydraulics of getting that water on to the land was the next topic on the Amuri field day programme. Several types of control gate were demonstrated in action by their makers or representatives.

On a very cold day the amount of wading around in a full head race that was required for these demonstrations certainly called for commitment to making sales.

The direct drilling demonstration in the afternoon was well attended by farmers keen to see the various machines make trial passes alongside each other. Each manufacturer was given a few minutes to explain the virtues of his machine and then asked to make a run with seed in the box at right angles to the borders and crossing several levee banks. As each machine made its run, farmers descended like a flock of seagulls on the furrows, scratching for the bottom of the slit left by the hoe coulters and the seeds which had been deposited. On display were two different sizes of the Bamlett Begg Direct Till Drill (Begg and Allen. Christchurch), the Henry Direct Drill (Henry Engineering, Loburn), the Duncan Till Seeder (P. and D. Duncan, Christchurch) and the Aitchison Seedmatic (Aitchison Industrires, Wanganui).

Mr Paul Gardner, who owned the property, said that he had developed 270 ha for irrigation of the 385 ha within the boundaries. He had trebled stock units

since buying the property but an explosion of grass grub numbers under irrigation had prompted a move

towards cropping. The first year's experience with chemical cultivation and direct drilling was not' very successful, as wheat and barley crops averaged only 1.25 tonnes per hectare. However, this year he had persisted with Roundup on the same area and felt much more confident going into his second lot of cereal crops. Mr Trevor Knight, from

the Winchmore Irrigation Research Station of the M.A.F.. summarised the results so far from the Winchmore comparison of direct drilling and conventional cultivation. These results were also presented by the research team leader. Dr Garth Janson, at the Monsanto Conservation Tillage Seminar recently and carried in the Farm and Station pages of "The Press" on Mav li.