66 | Pellow Produce’s no-tillage approach Crimp rolling over mustard cover crop. Ange Davidson HORTICULTURE » Pellow Produce Precision farming of arable crops on 170 hectares in North Waikato has earned Chris Pellow three awards at this year’s Ballance Farm Environment awards. Chris grows maize, barley and winter cover crops on flat and rolling land at Onewhero with a focus on efficiency of all inputs, targeting nutrients, chemicals and seed where it’s needed rather than a blanket application. It is this philosophy and adoption of no-tillage that saw Pellow’s Produce take home the Ballance Agri-Nutrients Soil Management award, Norwood Farm Efficiency Award and Hill Laboratories Agri-Science award for the Waikato region. Originally a livestock farm, Chris bought the land from his family in the mid-90s and converted it to cropping with a few head of cattle to keep the grass down on areas unsuitable for crop. He now crops 130 hectares which includes 28 hectares of leased land. “It’s been a journey getting the farm to where it’s at now. I’ve been gradually increasing the precision farming side of things and making incremental gains all the way through,” says Chris. “Precision farming requires good soil sampling so you can target what is needed in a specific area. I take samples from every paddock on a threeyear rotation, send these to a lab and a consultant makes recommendations from the results. Between us we create a variable rate map for nutrient and chemical requirements,” he says. The sampling also provides accurate data on which crops should be planted where and Chris is constantly evaluating and tailoring his farming techniques based on the previous season’s production. Chris started trialling a no-tillage approach to the cropping in the early 2000s, to reduce soil disturbance and maintain the soil’s structure which now sits around 20cm. No-tillage is now used for all crops. “If we lost glyphosate, as some would like to see happen, it would make a sever dent in the ability to no-till. Yes, you do use more chemicals, but I’d say chemical demand has reduced through no-tillage as you’re not stirring up weeds, especially deep-rooted weeds like dock and Californian thistle. This means less perennial weeds and more shallow rooted, easier to control grass weeds. There’s also a good thatch of the last crop residue along with the cover crops to help supress weed growth,” says Chris. Getting out of the truck and getting your hands dirty is part of the precision farming formula to understand what weeds and pests need targeting. The recent heavy rains increased the fungal load, or drowned crops, and Chris lost this year’s barley crop through flooding along with some of the maize. Chris’s advice to people wanting to change their farming systems to no-tillage and precision farming, is to try one thing at a time for a three to five year period so you can see the results before trying something else. “I’d say, just have a go! Make incremental changes along the way so you’re not chopping and changing. In the current economy, it pays to be more efficient, but pick the low hanging fruit and just work on a few things at a time,” he says.
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