Dannevircke

Today we drove down the windy coast from Gisbourne to the Napier Hastings area. We met with farmers at Hugh farm where they can grow anything. They have a good rotation of corn to various vegetable crops. The big difference from some areas is they plant ryegrass and grass it down before planting the next crop.

Mr. Nicholes is the custom operator or contractor there and brought his John Deere planter over for discussion. They are making the planter work in strip till with the Orthmann strip bar made in the states. They seem to be quite happy with it.

As usual I showed what we do on our farm and across our country. They liked the ideas of no coulter and the spading wheels and the Reduced Inside Diameter gauge wheel tire that actually lifts the sidewall beside the seed trench instead of mashing it down on regular planters. The liked the design of the drag chain, too.

We had a real good discussion on reducing tillage and introducing cover crops into the crop rotation. LuAnn, Dianne and I had tea with Hugh and Nicoles after the discussion and talked about Hugh's trip to the states. The innovators here know all the main people I know in the states so we often trade ideas and experiences.

Then we head up state route 2 to Palmerston North and passed through a Scandanavian town named Dannevircke. 21 families settled here in 1871 and started dairy farming and the town was born. Many still dairy there.

We passed the first wind farm we have seen in the country on the way to Palmerston North. Those turbines were working hard.

That pretty much does it for Tuesday. Tomorrow we visit and another farm and their neighbors near the town of Bull.

That should be a good talk, LOL.

The survivors of any industry, especially farming, source information, sort the BS, try it and implement what works best for them.

Ed