16 | Classic Kiwi number 8 wire mentality Doug Nilsson with his prototype kumara plant cutter machine. Karen Phelps Doug Nilsson of Dunsmore Gardens in Dargaville embodies the classic Kiwi number 8 wire mentality, constantly inventing and adapting to keep his farming business viable. Managing 200 hectares, with 80 hectares of that dedicated to kumara production, Doug is no stranger to the pressures of modern agriculture and has several inventions in various stages of development that he hopes will make the job easier and more profitable for both his own farming operation and other farmers. “A lot of good inventions come out of necessity and every year presents new challenges, from fluctuating market returns to rising labour costs. The labour-intensive nature of kumara farming, from hand-selecting seeds to manual harvesting, makes it particularly vulnerable to these cost increases.” One of his inventions aims to solve part of the labour issue - a custom harvester to cut plants from the beds consistently and make the job physically easier for workers. “I’m still working on this to get it working 100%. One of the things is we have to trial it when we have plants available, which is normally a busy time of year and we can’t afford to lose plants either so we tend to trial it at the end of the year. But it could create good labour and be a game changer if I can get it right.” It’s an invention that doesn’t work with the normal outdoor plant growing cloches but indoor plant growing trials in a 3,400m² hot house have presented further challenges. “The plants tend to grow flatter and not upright to machine cut them,” says Doug. “Adjusting plant growth to suit machinery remains a work in progress.” Doug has also explored international solutions, returning from the USA with ideas for a kumara planting machine, which could ensure consistent depth. “It should make it easier on the staff and will hopefully give more consistency across the planters. It could also result in another piece of machinery around the shed, an offering to the junk gods,” he jokes, “but you only need one good idea out of ten and it could be a game changer for your business and keeping it viable going forward.” Innovation is also apparent in Doug’s attitude to environmental stewardship and he has been involved with Kaipara Moana Remediation (KMR), a decade-long project to restore the mauri of the RURAL PEOPLE » Dunsmore Gardens Kaipara Moana, which aims to protect waterways, restore wetlands and help valued species thrive while also helping farmers to improve resilience to extreme weather. “We spray out and prepare the area and they come in and plant. We’ve done around a hectare that we don’t graze and aren’t cropping,” he explains. Dunsmore Gardens has also diversified to maintain financial stability. In the off-season, the farm fattens around 2,000 lambs and grows cover crops to plough back in and occasionally maize for grain on contract, helping manage cash flow and preserve soil health. The farm grows all main commercial kumara varieties, including Owairaka Red, Beauregard, Toka Toka, and Purple Dawn, supplying Kaipara Kumara, of which Dunsmore Gardens is a shareholder. Doug is currently trialling three new orange-flesh kumara varieties for the local district association. “Two out of three aren’t performing too badly in small trials and when it gets down to eating a few we’ll know more about taste. This is something the industry has been looking at to see if there are better varieties out there that can produce bigger and more uniform yields and quantities.”
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