H&T Agronomics needed to improve the way they were recording activities and recommendations so that they could easily share this information with their clients.
SOLUTION
All 12 H&T agronomists and advisors were equipped with the Agworld platform so they could use it in their daily routine.
RESULT
Clients of H&T are now always up-to-date with the cropping plans for their farm and they are able to ensure that all recommendations get acted upon in a timely manner.
H&T Agronomics Location:Feilding, NZ Type:Forage and crop advisors Established:2003 Area serviced:North Island Agronomists:12
Leading New Zealand agronomists are reaping the rewards of better connectivity with farmers using an app that captures, shares and stores data in real-time for better crop planning, protection, nutrition and management. H&T Agronomics, based at Feilding in the North Island, has equipped its 12 forage and cropping agronomists and advisers with the Agworld app and connected several hundred farmer clients to the system.
Company business manager Duncan Thomas said the app had fast become the company’s main method of communication with clients, who are spread right across the North Island.
“It gives our team a comprehensive, consistent and accurate method of communicating plans, observations and recommendations to our clients throughout their entire cropping process,” he said.“We find it gives both the farmers and agronomists surety around setting goals and recording and monitoring actions and activities in the paddock.”
Mr Thomas said the H&T Agronomics team logged all cropping activities, observations and recommendations in the Agworld app while they were on the client’s farm.
He said these were then sent to the company’s business manager before providing the information to the client and/or his contractor for oversight.
“This means records of activities are easily accessible for reference if a problem occurs, or there is a need to review them against a plan,” he said.
Mr Thomas said for farmer clients, the Agworld app was an important tool for generating fully mapped-out cropping plans, costed against budgets, to share with their staff and contractors to ensure recommendations were carried out correctly and recorded.
“It helps to maintain a clear, centralised crop management plan and database that everyone working on the farm can refer to,” he said.
“This ensures they are all working to common goals with minimal risk of confusion, delay and inaccuracy.
“Because information is collected and shared in the field, jobs can also be completed while fresh in mind.”
Mr Thomas said the Agworld app improved productivity for agronomists and farmers because it facilitated timeliness of all crop activities and reduced risks of having to undertake salvage situations.
“For our business, it also means agronomists are able to achieve more each day and make better use of their time with clients,” he said.
Mr Thomas said the Agworld app was a remarkably stable program and continued to grow and develop in clever ways to meet both farmer and agronomist needs for data capture and use.
Fraser Dymond is passionate about working alongside farmers so they can get the best service and advice when it comes to making cropping decisions.
The 24-year-old is a forage and cropping adviser for H&T Agronomics in the Waikato and King Country area.
He was named Farmax Emerging Rural Professional of the Year at NZIPIM’s National Conference Awards Dinner in August.
The judges were impressed with the lengths Fraser goes to working with his clients in getting the right outcomes for them and their business, as well as his willingness to trial and apply new ideas in the field.
Lots of farmers think they have to pay for my time monitoring their crops, but they don’t, that’s part of the service.
Fraser works with farmers to give advice and recommends a cropping plan including costs, with a follow-up service to monitor the crops and provide technical reports through to harvest.
“Lots of farmers think they have to pay for my time monitoring their crops, but they don’t, that’s part of the service. We don’t think farmers should just be sold seed, we want farmers to get the service and technical advice that reflects their investment.”
Fraser grew up on a dairy farm in the Wairarapa until he was seven years old when his parents moved off farm. The fire had already been lit, however, and Fraser had a passion for all things farming so studying agriculture at university was always on the cards. He studied a Bachelor of Agri-Commerce at Massey University in Palmerston North majoring in farm management.
Palmerston North was a fantastic place to study, it’s a great student town and so many students have similar agricultural interests, Fraser says. There are many pathways and job opportunities that lead on to working in the agriculture sector and a variety of degrees can get you there, he says.
“No matter what degree you do anyone can go into the agriculture industry now.
“I never knew this role existed when I was at university. You’ve got to keep your eyes open and talk to people in the industry.”
When he finished studying Fraser took a job working on a dairy farm in the Waikato where he took responsibility of the cropping side of the business.
“I wasn’t 100% sure what I wanted to do when I finished university. The opportunity came up to work on a dairy farm in Pirongia and I loved it.
“Working onfarm was very valuable to the role I’m in now, it gave me the understanding of what’s happening onfarm and a broader general knowledge. It’s easy to learn from a textbook but to implement that onfarm is a different story.”
His friend Jacob Smith, who works for H&T Agronomics, suggested Fraser put his hat in the ring for a job going in the Waikato and he was successful.
H&T Agronomics is a growing company which focuses on customer service and providing technical advice to help farmers make good decisions and help them grow a successful crop. They also have a major focus on developing seed treatments that create better environmental and production outcomes. It’s been an excellent starting platform to his career, Fraser says.
“I like being part of a small company where you feel like you’re contributing – you’re not just a number.”
Even with a degree under his belt, he has learnt so much since starting his job, he says.
Fraser has technology to continually monitor crops, report on their progress to the farmers and to offer advice on when to harvest.
“Working out in the field has been a big learning curve. It’s exciting to think what I will know with another five years working. That’s what drives me going forward.”
The role has seasonal peaks, with spring and autumn being the busy periods. Fraser has 70 clients on his books and gets around all farmers to make a cropping plan during winter. Farmers are exceptionally busy in spring so Fraser aims to help them have a plan sorted and then follows up to make sure paddock preparation is up to standard and to ensure crops go in on time.
He also liaises with contractors to ensure best practice for planting and establishment.
“We keep a relationship with the contractors as well to ensure the best results possible.”
He visits each farm every two or three weeks once the crops are planted to ensure they are establishing well and continually monitors crops, giving farmers reports on progress and offers advice on when to harvest a crop.
“I like to get farmers out to check paddocks with me, which educates them on their crops so they can also ring me if they think anything is not right.”
Getting around all the farms during the busy period can mean some long hours but it balances out during the quieter months, when Fraser can get away skiing in winter or playing tennis in summer.
As well as working with farmers, Fraser keeps busy attending discussion groups and meetings to stay across industry issues, for anything that could impact cropping on farms. With his prize money from NZIPIM, Fraser is setting up a project to look at sustainable forage cropping and best practice. He wants to focus on using ground cover species with winter grazing crops, such as oats and plantain.
The vast majority of farmers are now considering the environmental impact of their cropping practices and the quality of their crop, rather than just the profit or the yield, he says.
“Most people want to do the right thing, and it’s great to be able to look at those options in depth with farmers.
“Direct drilling for example is a no-brainer now. It’s flipped around and farmers now avoid cultivating unless they have to.”
He wants to continue to offer his clients the best advice when it comes to sustainable cropping.
One of his concerns with the new freshwater statement is around intensive land use. There is still a lot of under-productive land that could benefit from different management, but he worries those opportunities could be taken away in the future, he says. Other topical issues for the future that will impact cropping is the public pressure on the use of glyphosate and neonicotinoids.
“We are being challenged, but that’s when new solutions come out. It is exciting to be young. We will have a chance to push the industry forward.”
Fraser’s long-term plan is to work back on a farm in some capacity and ideally have an investment in land. He would ideally like to be living on a farm to bring up a family of his own in the future.
“The ideal would be to use my knowledge and passion for cropping systems on a farm of my own or one that I have an investment in.”
Credit NZ Farm Life Media, Country Wide, Dairy Exporter, Young Country
Don and Liz Polson have struck green on their Mangamahu Valley farm near Wanganui after spending $5000/ha on irrigation. Russell Priestreports. Photos by Graeme Brown.
A desire to improve lamb growth rates and drought-proof their finishing prompted the Polsons to install an irrigation system along with high-performance forages on their 130ha alluvial river flats.
“I’ve had enough of droughts,” Don says. “We’ve gone from a desert to an oasis under irrigation. We’ve never had so much summer feed.”
The Polsons’ main farm, Waipuna, is a 1600ha mainly medium to steep hill-country block lying between Mangamahu Valley and State Highway 4 (the Parapara Rd) north-east of Wanganui.
The farm includes 350ha of river flats and terraces bounded by the Mangawhero River. The area is prone to dry summers.
“In the past we’ve finished most of our lambs by various means. However, we’ve generally ended-up having to carry a lot of light lambs into the winter to finish,” Don says.
“My philosophy used to be that if we could get our lambs through the summer they would be very valuable.”
In recent years the Polsons have even fed grain or pellets to help carry their lambs through.
“We quite enjoyed feeding grain-pellets as it was nice to feel appreciated. The lambs would be waiting for you at the gate each day!”
Nowadays the focus is on getting lambs to slaughter weights as early as possible. To help them do this the Polsons have invested $5000/ha to irrigate some of the river flats.
The option of buying more finishing land was also investigated but irrigation got the nod.
Don concedes that not everyone close to a major water source is able to irrigate because of the difficulty in getting water consents and in lifting it out of the river.
The irrigation project employs three guns, each covering an area of a little over 40ha and capable of delivering 30mm every 10 days. The required operating pressure is 120psi.
“Because of the high pressures required, guns are less efficient than centre pivots in delivering water. We couldn’t use centre-pivot technology because of the uneven contour.”
To achieve the required result two pumps are used in tandem. The first pump (30kW) lifts the water 30m out of the Mangawhero River and delivers it to the second pump (90kW) that provides the necessary volume and pressure to drive the guns. The Polsons have a consent to use 5300-cubic metres of water a day.
Getting all bases covered
Finishing lambs on irrigated red clover.
Paul Oliver of H&T Agronomics has been heavily involved in the species selection for Don and Liz Polson’s irrigated area. Red clover (35ha), plantain-white clover (20ha) and high-performance ryegrass-white clover (75ha) swards have all been sown.
Measurements of drymatter yield and liveweight gain have been recorded on each of the swards.
Red clover has shown to produce the greatest annual yield and consistently the best liveweight gain. It has generated spectacular performance results in summer, has a full range of weedcontrol options but is the least-robust plant at low residuals.
Also, all animals grazing it have to be vaccinated with 10-in-1 because of animal health issues related to clostridial diseases.
Ryegrass-white clover drymatter yield exceeded the other two swards in mid-winter to early spring but was the poorest performer over the spring-summer period.
It was the most robust sward of the three at low residuals but did have a greater requirement for nitrogen and water.
It also achieved the poorest lamb growth rate. The Polson’s farming programme was considerably disrupted last winter when 20-30% of their river flats were covered in silt because of flooding.
Some of the flats were too wet to get on with a tractor so they’ve been successfully resown with ryegrass and white clover by using a helicopter.
Don’s thoughts are that the 75ha of ryegrass-white clover pasture will be included in a three-year rotation involving pasja, followed by two years of a high-performing ryegrass-white clover sward.
“Because we are unfamiliar with these new species we are on a very steep learning curve and a lot of trial and error will be involved in determining the appropriate management for them,” Don says.
“Our intention is to start lambing twinbearing-older ewes (in-lamb to Primera sires) on the ryegrass-white clover paddocks in late August. From here they can be moved on to the plantain and red clover swards.”
As growth rates increase within the swards, ewes and lambs and yearling cattle will be pulled off the hills to control the feed on the flats. Once weaning takes place the flats will be stocked almost entirely with lambs and cattle.
“Last year was our first full year using irrigation and it worked very well.”
Three of the Polsons’ employees, from left: Hoani Pouwhare- Anderson, Kapawai and Jason Anderson. Front: Jason Anderson’s son Jayna.
While Don and Liz oversee the business and are both actively involved in it, the three farms each have a manager – Waipuna is managed by Roy Pullen, Te Tui by Gerald van der Vlerk and Awarua by Andrew von Pein.
“We are very appreciative of our managers and our three other employees: Jason Anderson, Hoani Pouwhare- Anderson and Kapaiwai. They have all been through the highs and lows of floods and droughts and are still with us,” Don says.
“Farming has become more high-tech with animal recording, irrigation and modern machinery and they have all coped with these with ease, which has amazed us.”
Pasture renewal
As part of a pasture renewal programme to replace poor performing pastures and to eliminate persistent weeds like Californian thistles, the Polsons grow 80ha of turnips for summer feed.
Turnips are grown instead of other summer forage crops because they produce a bulk of feed in February when it is required.
“Other crops are often ready to graze earlier than we require them,” Don Polson says.
“Also, turnip bulbs don’t deteriorate when it is very dry. They have real value in a drought.”
High on the hogget
The Polson’s winter 12,000 ewes of which 10,300 are mostly commercial Highlander ewes.
The Polson’s business winters 12,000 ewes. Of these 10,300 are mostly commercial Highlander ewes – 6300 are mated to Highlander ram hoggets and 4000 to Primera ram hoggets.
The remaining ewes include 1000 Multiplier Primera ewes mated to elite two-tooth progeny-tested Primera rams and 700 elite Highlander ewes mated to elite two-tooth and hogget rams with a strong facial eczema-tolerant background.
High lambing percentages are maintained without flushing ewes before mating. All ewes are mated on the hills except for the Highlander DNA ewes.
“We are comfortable with our current docking percentage of 150%. A greater number of lambs challenges our ability to finish them and we must remain flexible. Who knows what the future holds,” Don Polson says.
About 3000 ewe hoggets are lambed each year, producing about 2900 lambs. Initial selection for those going to the ram is made on liveweight assessment at the drafting gate.
The second stage of selection is based on those that conceive, normally about 90%.
They are mated to Primera ram hoggets. Ewes are scanned to identify the multiple-bearers and lambing starts in late August.
Ewe shearing at Waipuna.
A number of the multiplebearing Highlander ewes mated to Primera rams are lambed in late August on the easy country as are the Highlander DNA ewes and Multiplier Primera ewes.
The ewe flock docks on average 18,000 lambs of which 12,000-13,000 are finished at an average slaughter weight of 18kg. All lambs are processed by Silver Fern Farms.
About 4000 Highlander ewe lambs are retained for breeding within the business and a further 1500 sold to commercial farmers for breeding.
Selection of these lambs must be made early enough so that commercial clients can get them up to 40kg for mating as hoggets. Usually this occurs in January at an average weight of 25kg.
“A 25kg lamb in January should easily be able to reach 40kg by mating,” Donsays.
A number of Primera ram hoggets are also sold for breeding. Having to delay selection of ram hoggets for sale-breeding until they are able to be assessed in February for structural faults is a further impediment to management.
“Under normal commercial farming practice most of the 1300 ram hoggets culled in the assessment process would have been killed a lot earlier if we did not have to wait to go through that process. There are significant costs associated with this.”
The Polsons run 500 Stabiliser breeding cows primarily to maintain feed quality.
The Polsons’ business also runs 500 Stabiliser breeding cows over the three farms primarily to maintain feed quality. However, some of the country is too steep to run cattle.
“We don’t do our cattle as well as we would like,” Don says.
“Their value is in maintaining feed quality. Sheep are our first priority.”
Cows are calved from mid-October to mid-November on the easier hills and achieve an average calving percentage in excess of 90%.
About 130 two-year-old heifers are calved behind an electric fence on Awarua, generally producing about 125 calves.
“We’ve had mixed results with our two-year-old calving. We have learnt that manipulating their condition score tends to lead to calving problems so we try and maintain it at the same level throughout pregnancy.”
Calves are yard weaned in early April.
Don and Liz Polson own two farms, Waipuna and Te Tui and part-own a third, Awarua, in partnership with David Boswell. Te Tui is a 600ha farm of mixed contour – 100ha cultivable, 200ha easy ash-covered hills and 260ha steeper papa hills – on Fields Track Rd off SH4 north of Waipuna. Awarua is a 512ha farm – 160ha of cultivable ash soil, 305ha of papa and ash soil and 47ha of pine forest and bush – at Raetihi in the central North Island. This property’s climate is quite different to the other two farms – it’s significantly higher in altitude with a shorter growing season and is less prone to dry summers.
“Early yard weaning has been very successful for us. We shut the calves in the yards for three days and feed them balage and grain,” Don says.
“They then go out on to the flats where they continue to have access to grain up to a maximum of one kilogram a head per day and poorer-quality pasture which exists on the flats at this time of the year. They do really well and become our best friends.”
This feeding regime continues as long as grass is in short supply. They remain on the flats until late July when they are set stocked on the hills for two months then brought back on to the flats for growing out.
The best 100 yearling steers are sent up to Awarua in early December and finished as two-and-a-half-year olds at about 300kg carcaseweight.
The rest are finished at Waipuna. Replacement R1 heifers are sent to Te Tui and the culls are finished or sold store at Waipuna.
“Cattle are our safety valve. Sometimes we will even graze them off the farm if we consider it appropriate.”
The Polsons’ business is a complex one involving not only commercial sheep and cattle breeding and finishing enterprises but also ram breeding.
They are a genetic breeding partner for Focus Genetics, producing Highlander and Primera rams and ram hoggets.
Such complexity with so many different stock classes and breeds is a big impediment to management although having three separate farms does enable some rationalisation.
Te Tui runs the Highlander Multiplier breeding ewes, 150 Stabiliser breeding cows and 150 replacement R1 Stabiliser breeding heifers. Most male lambs bred onfarm are finished on Te Tui.
Waipuna is home to the main breeding ewe flock as well as the Highlander DNA ewes and Primera Multiplier ewes. It also finishes the Awarua-born lambs and the surplus lambs from Te Tui. As well as running most of the lambs,
Waipuna carries 200 breeding cows, all the R1 steers, some R2 steers and heifers for finishing and all the R1 heifers not required as replacements.
Awarua’s main function is to run the in-lamb hoggets and in-calf R2 heifers as well as finish some of the R2 steers. A lot of the hills on the farm lie to the north providing excellent shelter for lambing hoggets.
Steeped in erosion
Slip damage on Waipuna from last year’s wet winter.
The Polson’s farming business has been severely disrupted by two big weather events in the past 12 years – the 2004 flooding that devastated parts of the lower North Island and last year’s extremely wet winter.
Both events caused major erosion on the hills and flooding-silting of the river flats. Don Polson believes that if farming is to continue sustainably on steep hill country the erosion problem must be addressed.
He believes that blanket-planting of shortrotation trees is not the answer because of accessibility and the post-harvest trash problem.
“We must continue to be able to graze our hills using wide-spaced planting of long-rotation trees like poplars. They not only provide ground stability but also stock shade, valuable fodder during droughts and are aesthetically pleasing.
“The latter is particularly important for our burgeoning tourist industry. It is likely farmers will not be able to finance the level of planting required therefore they would need to be rewarded for fixing carbon.
“With the rapidly evolving drone technology we should in the near future be able to assess the amount of carbon being fixed from the air,” he says.
Politics is in the blood
Don Polson surveys the flood damage on his irrigated flats.
The Polson family name was established in the Wanganui area in 1873 when Don Polson’s great grandfather Donald Gunn Polson bought Manurewa, a 460ha farm at the southern end of what is now known as Waipuna.
Further land was subsequently bought by Donald until Don’s grandfather, Sir William John Polson, took over the farm. It underwent a period of consolidation under his ownership because of his divided interest in politics.
Sir William was an independent Member of Parliament for Stratford and leader of the Upper House before it was disbanded. He was also a foundation member of the NZ Farmers’ Union (now Federated Farmers) and its president for 18 years.
“The organisation had a lot of political clout in those days. It almost ran the country,” Don says.
Don’s father and uncle subsequently managed the property and when they returned from World War II the farm was divided three ways, the third-share going to their sister Dorothy.
When Don and his late brother Alistair – a past national president of Federated Farmers and a special agricultural trade envoy for NZ – were handed the reins of their father’s share of the farm they set about amalgamating, with the help of their cousin Sam, the farms previously owned by Sir William.
Sam’s father, John Polson, was also politically inclined, serving on the NZ Meat Board. In 2005 Don and Alistair decided to follow the family tradition and divide the business so the farm was once again split.
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From humble beginnings in our Weld Street site to new premises on Kawakawa Road, it’s now time to double the size of our production and storage facility to keep up with demand for our products and technologies.
Our new building will be complete in time to allow industry-leading production and seed turnaround this spring.
Paul and Dunc made a quick trip to the UK in March to respond to interest in RAPPEL® Seed Applied Slug Repellent technology following a guest-speaking slot at the opening of the NZ Cross Slot Conference in February.
UK oilseed rape and cereal farmers face serious environmental and physical challenges in their ability to control slugs during crop establishment and RAPPEL® offers a solution too good to miss.
Using seeds as delivery vehicles for the things that ensure a good crop seems a logical thing to do. Feilding company OptiTech, a part of H&T Agronomics, is doing just that with multiple seed coatings in custom-made recipes allowing seeds to take their pesticides, herbicides, fertilisers and growth stimulants into the ground with them. Tony Leggett reports on how it works.
Slugs have met their match for cereal growers using seed coated with repellent in a world-leading technique developed by a Feilding company.
H&T Agronomics has honed its seed coating skills since investing more than $1 million in specialised equipment imported from Europe two years ago for its seed coating business, OptiTech.
Clients were benefitting already from sowing pasture and forage brassica seed coated with several layers of built-in protection from pests and diseases, H&T business manager Duncan Thomas said.
After successfully adding slug repellent to its range of pasture and brassica coated seeds, its latest breakthrough was to coat bulk barley, wheat and maize seeds with slug repellent, eliminating the need for bait application at sowing.
It had trademarked the latest breakthrough under the brand name Rappel and made it available this spring on all its brassica, herb, pasture and cereal seed at $55/ha
The cost was about the same as the bait but eliminated the cost of applying it after sowing.
Seed coating technology was an obvious next step for the company that had a strong spirit of innovation and a determination to deliver the best genetics and advice on total farm systems to its clients, Thomas said.
A visit to the International Seed Federation conference and exhibition in Beijing four years ago gave Thomas and colleague Paul Oliver the confidence to recommend an investment in seed coating equipment to the H&T board.
“We saw a huge spike of growth in seed-applied technologies.
“Instead of applying sprays on to the crop or pasture foliage, with all the risks and costs that can have, we saw the opportunity to apply it to the seed and use the seed as a taxi,” Thomas said.
“That way the ingredients get down to the root system and move up through the plant where they do the work.
“There’s no spray drift, run-off or off-target spraying so the risks to the environment are reduced.
“Farmers have been asking us for this for a couple of years and we’ve been trialling it over that time.
“But now we have the trial work from AgResearch we needed to back up the results we were getting from our own bin trials, so we’re ready to go.”
H&T Agronomics director Dave Burney said the board was happy to invest to develop the seed-coating business.
“It came at a critical time in the development of H&T as well. We were looking for ways to grow the business so this was an obvious option for the company to take.”
What followed was the installation of a seed-coating machine set up to handle bags of seed.
The latest investment in a bulk conveyor system meant H&T could now coat cereal seed at up to 18 tonnes an hour.
“We can now apply up to six separate coatings onto seed and customise those coatings to the environment the seed will be sown into.
“Most of our recipes have been developed here in the plant in Feilding through tapping bright minds and some trial work to get the brews right,” he said.
An exciting recent discovery was the ability to coat maize seed with a natural root growth stimulant, marketed under the brand name H&T Optimised.
Field results backed up pot trials for maize, which showed up to a 400% increase in the root mass and 13% greater shoot mass at 39 days after sowing, compared with other treated and untreated seed.
The same root growth stimulant could be applied to all seed types. Other work was now under way to test a natural insecticide which could have huge applications for organic farmers.
H&T field staff and management had also installed crop management software called AgWorld on their phones and field iPads.
It allowed them to make crop recommendations on site and manage the crop from sowing to harvest, including the scheduling of spraying, fertiliser applications and harvesting on a shared, cloud-based platform.
“You still can’t beat a face-to-face visit with the grower and their crops but AgWorld has revolutionised our business because it’s so easy to keep everyone informed and to schedule all the activities required to maintain a healthy crop,” Thomas said.
Burney said the adoption of AgWorld for H&T was another factor that set the business apart from its competitors.
H&T had more than 10 field agents covering most of the North Island, managed from its main office in Feilding. A small group of South Island farms was also being visited regularly.
The company launched its own graduate internship initiative three years ago to build its field team with staff who had been through a thorough training and mentoring programme, working alongside highly experienced, trusted agents.
“The results have been phenomenal.
“We are getting some of the top students from Massey and Lincoln Universities coming our way, including our first female rep, Susie Dalgety, who joined us earlier this year.”
To stay informed about global trends and new developments, Thomas and Oliver are heading back to next year’s International Seed Federation conference, in Brisbane.
Image caption: Duncan Thomas with the seed coating machine at H&T Agronomics. Photo: Aaron Davies
