| 67 Personalised service goes a long way Despite the cost of fertiliser doubling and almost tripling in price, this season has still been a busy one for Boags Contracting. Kelly Deeks Rakaia’s Boags Contracting Limited is a small husband and wife business servicing the Groundspread fertiliser needs of dairy and arable farmers in the surrounding area for nearly 30 years. Mark Boag grew up on the Boag family’s mixed cropping farm in Hatfield. Once he left school he took on sheep shearing which he did for 13 years before he and Julie went into partnership in a fertiliser spreading business with Mark’s brother David, who was running a spraying business at the time. Mark and Julie took over the spreading business in 2005 and have run quite happily as a team ever since. “I did look at expanding years ago, but the business ticks along quite good the way it is,” Mark says. “I don’t have any issues with staffing, and I don’t need to double our workload. “When the farmers call, they are are talking to me, and we have been on a lot of the farms for the past 20 years, and some even longer. We run a mini sower and bulk truck with an elevator that carts the fertiliser from the store to farm and we employ a contract driver to fulfil this task.” The past 30 years have seen more dairy farms and winter grazing come to Rakaia and the surrounding areas. The processed vegetable industry also has an increasing stake in the district, with potatoes, onions, and yams a mainstay, and peas and corn increasing in recent years as some of the big vegetable producers have moved to Rakaia to take advantage of Mid-Canterbury’s rich growing soils and flat irrigated land. With Boags Contracting’s mini sower, as well as spreading fertiliser for these vegie crops, the firm is also able to spread fertiliser for fodder beet, kale, and young grass, as it is set up to follow spray rig tram lines. Mark says the biggest requirement from the groundspread industry today is the proof of placement that all farmers need to see and incorporate into their Farm Environment Plans. Boags Contracting utilises highly accurate GPS mapping technology from Precision Tracking, which provides farmers a map in real time, detailing which product has been spread where and at what rate. Farmers can use the system to easily place detailed orders including paddock by paddock RURAL SERVICES » Boags Contracting instructions and a detailed farm map, so Mark and Julie can get on and off farms faster. Boags Contracting is proudly Spreadmark Certified which ensures fertilisers are placed in locations where they can be of the most agricultural benefit and the least environmental harm. “No one throws fert around willy nilly, it’s up to $1000 a ton at the moment.” Ballance’s new self-service silo at Pendarves, which is open 24 hours, has given Boags Contracting the option to pick up fertiliser any time of day, allowing Mark and Julie to work longer days when they need to. Mark says despite the cost of fertiliser doubling and almost tripling in price, this season has still been a busy one for Boags Contracting. “It doesn’t matter what the price is - If you want the yields and healthy crops, it has still got to go on.” ANOTHER BREDAL SPREADER SUPPORTING BOAGS CONTRACTING TO ACHIEVE SPREADING EXCELLENCE 0800 EUROAG EUROAGRI.CO.NZ BINS FROM 3,500 - 16,500L CAPACITY TURNKEY PACKAGES AVAILABLE CUSTOM BUILT TO YOUR SPECIFICATIONS FINANCE PACKAGES TO SUIT MARK SMITHERAM 027 292 5014 ELIOT SCHOFIELD 027 611 1892 JAMES MCCLOY 027 782 7606 Noel Macdonald Territory Manager Ashburton and Timaru M 021 948 289 E noel@smallboneisuzu.co.nz W smallboneisuzu.co.nz
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=