62 | RURAL SERVICES » Lake Hawea Contracting Irrigation opens floodgates for seed crops John and Donella Osborne set up their rural spraying business Lake Hawea Contracting in 2013 to service farms in the Upper Clutha region where they’re based. While they still do a lot of basic ground spraying their business involves increasing amounts of precision crop-spraying for seed crops: carrots, pak-choy, radish, peas, oats, barley and wheat are all being grown in the region for their seed. While the carrot seed has been grown there for 10 years, some crops such as the radish and pak-choy are new to the area, their arrival made possible by the advent of irrigation from the Clutha River. “A lot of it was just dryland used for sheep and beef farming,” says John. “But there’s so much irrigation here now we’re moving ahead. There’s a lot of potential down here to become the next midCanterbury with all their specialist seed crops.” They’re very high value crops with special seeders brought down from Ashburton by Midlands Seed Company to ensure the crops get off to a successful start. The Osbornes too have invested in specialist gear to better manage their part of the process. Carrots for example are sown in separate male and female rows to allow for pollination. “I then mulch out the male rows in February once the bees have done their thing, and the set seed gets harvested around April,” says John. “We’ve got a high-clearance sprayer we use so we can get over the top of the crops, up to about a metre or more, and we tram-line it using our autosteering which we’ve set up using our GPS.” Things have come a long way technology-wise since John first started spraying crops as a teenager and since they set up Lake Hawea Contracting eight years ago they’ve gradually upgraded their gear as they’ve focused more seriously on the precision requirements of seed cropping. “The first spraying I ever did we had a hose that came out of the end of the boom leaving little blobs of foam that we had to follow like a line of breadcrumbs,” says John. “Now we get in a truck, push a button and set the parameters pulling information off up to 28 satellites at a time. The big crop sprayer has a boom that’s 24 meters wide and it gets down to within 100 millimetres accuracy.” Photos: Night spraying – wind and heat and the carrots seed being pollinated, means spraying when the bees are resting. Grandson Carter (below) always enjoys a day in the truck with Papa. Virginia Wright
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