1 November 2001 Switched-on six compete for Farmer of Year title

Six technologically switched-on farmers from Southland, Otago, and Canterbury compete for the 2001 Lincoln University Foundation/Rabobank Farmer of the Year title on Tuesday 6 November at Lincoln University.

Up for winning in addition to the prestigious Farmer of the Year title are travel awards of $7500, $3000 and $2000.

The competition is now in its 19th year and the specialist category for 2001 was "Application of Technology".

The final, starting at 9.30am in Lincoln University's Stewart 2 lecture theatre, involves public presentations by each of the finalists about their farming operations and their "application of technology”. The winner should be announced around 12.30pm.

The six finalists are -

Leon Black of Ermedale, Riverton, Southland. Leon, with parents Peter and Marion, operates Blackdale Stud, farming Coopworth and Texel sheep and producing top genetic stock for clients. The stud is very focused on the technology of scanning for eye muscle and number of lambs and through this is able to manage feed to individual requirements. Every tool is used to match feed, production, management and client requirements. The aim is to average about 170 percent lambing from ewes mated across all breeds.

Douglas and Jo Gough of Greendale, Canterbury, produce sheep and a wide variety of crops using technology in various forms - a dry air generator, imported birdscarers, Topweigh a weighing system alternative to using load cells on machinery, Cash Manager for performance analysis and budgeting, plus information gathering and the application of knowledge gained through the net and Foundation for Arable Research trials.

Bruce and Mari McCorkindale of Lawrence, Otago, farm sheep and beef and also have areas in forestry and nut trees. The technologies they have identified and use include conservation tillage direct drilling. This has been used extensively for regrassing and growing crops. It allows for rapid decision­ making in action when events arise. Use of this system has been coupled with new forage plants to lift lamb carcase weights as well as lamb numbers.

Bruce and Shirley Turner of Allandale, Lyttelton Harbour, Canterbury, produce glasshouse tomatoes and trellised plums. The technological tools they use are an environment computer to control the glasshouse climate, an irrigation computer, and a C02 injection device. They also use bumblebees for pollination and beneficial insects for pest control. In addition they utilise their home PC for accounts, production and yield statistics.

Herstall and Alyson Ulrich of Pleasant Point, South Canterbury, farm Coopworth and Merino sheep and some cattle. They use irrigation to overcome the drought susceptibility of their property. They use a scanner to enable them to feed singles, twins and triplets, and run bull beef on their irrigated block under the "Bull Beef Technosystem". Other technologies they use include soil tests, conservation tillage, and computers for physical and financial data.

Eric and Maxine Watson of Wakanui, Ashburton, grow wheat, ryegrass, fescue, marrowfat peas, phacelia, lotus, linseed, barley, radish, spinach and Chinese cabbage. They also grow kale for winter feeding of dairy cows. The technologies they use includes a computerised sprayer to control the accuracy of application rates, and a yield measure on the combine harvester to give accurate yield readings during harvest. The Watsons have also adopted technological advances in the design and type of implements used in order to be more efficient in cultivation and kinder to the soil.

The presentations by the finalists are open to the public.

Ian Collins, Journalist, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand.