Business Rural Winter 2021

92 | Variable rate spreading ‘way of the future’ Regular visits from TracMap staff keep the North Canterbury Spreading fleet right up to scratch with the latest GPS guidance and job maintenance systems. Kelly Deeks RURAL SERVICES » Spreading North Canterbury K eeping up with emerging technology might be a hard race to win, which is where the sup- port of a large industry organisation can help. Gary and Sandra Carr, of Spreading North Canter- bury, say with constant updates, GPS and proof of placement systems are improving all the time, and staying up to date with the latest technology takes a lot of time and effort. “You’ve got to keep on top of it,” Gary says. “You’ve got to be ahead of the game, and be able to see what farmers and farming are going to need in the future.” Spreading North Canterbury uses the GPS guid- ance and job management system TracMap, and has done for about 12 years. Gary says the system is getting more efficient and more capable with every update. “We can even do variable rate spreading with it now, and we can see that is going to be the way of the future.” Regular visits from TracMap’s representatives help to keep Spreading North Canterbury up to date with the latest technology, as do a couple of meet- ings each year with the New Zealand Groundspread Fertilisers Association (NZGFA). Gary is a member of the Canterbury GFA and is proud to be on the committee organising the 64th NZGFA Annual Conference, hosted by the Canter- bury branch and held at the Hermitage Hotel at Aoraki Mount Cook. The theme for last year’s cancelled conference was Resilience – Staying Strong for Tomorrow’s Challenges. In light of what the world has been through since, it was thought every bit as appropri- ate to reprise the theme for 2021. “We’ve all had to adapt our businesses during the global pandemic,” Gary says. “With our location at Aoraki Mount Cook, we hoped to demonstrate that from earthquakes, mountains rise. This seems just as appropriate a message for 2021.” The Government’s 190kg N/ha/year cap on the amount of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser applied to land in pastoral land use will be a hot topic at the conference, since the new limit will be in place from July 1 2021. “This is really going to change things in the spreading industry. A lot of people will miss out on a lot of the spreading they were doing, but it’s a good thing. It’s going to make New Zealand a cleaner, greener country with less urea going on.” MC for the conference is New Zealand mountain- eer, cyclist, biochemist, researcher, winemaker, and motivational speaker Mark Inglis. Mark lost both his legs below the knee to frostbite after getting stuck in a snow cave on Aoraki Mount Cook for 13 days in 1982. 20 years later, he made it to the summit, then in 2006, made it to the top of the world when he became the first double amputee to reach the summit of Mount Everest. As a motivational speaker, there are few finer, but Gary has found the same attributes in one As a local member of your community, Findex understands the support that agribusiness needs to thrive. of his essential business partners. Agribusiness specialist and chartered accountant Blair Morris, of Findex Invercargill, gave a motivational speech at a NZGFA training day which so impressed Gary, that he joined Blair’s ever-growing client base of rural businesses and contractors. “This is really going to change things in the spreading industry. A lot of people will miss out on a lot of the spreading they were doing, but it’s a good thing.”