| 67 Jackson’s invested heavily in technology Tinwald fertiliser spreadking contractors Jon and Anna Jackson, have through the years invested heavily in technology for their family business, with the aim of ensuring their farmer clients get the most out of their fertiliser needs. Case in point: The Spikey, invented in collaboration with Pastoral Robotics is a clever addition to the fleet. Spikey detects and treats urine patches, reducing nitrate leaching into the soil. “I worked with Pastoral Robotics to match Spikey’s performance with modern groundspreader demands. It’s a brilliant piece of technology,” Jon says. Jackson Spreading was first started by Jon’s parents Dusty and Alison Jackson in 2013. A year later Jon and Anna joined the business. While Spikey has proved a valuable part of the fleet, Jon says these days with the tighter economic reality impacting farmer clients, there’s less demand for it and for spreading fertiliser generally. “We’ve had to adapt, but that’s something we’re used to.” So when Rural South contacted Jon in May, the focus had turned somewhat to feeding out to 5,000 dairy cows, given one of their clients had decided they were going to winter milk and their staff were going to be away for some of those months. Jackson Spreading is a team of 7 staff; growing slowly as demand allows. “It really comes down to growing as fast as we can justify buying another truck,” Jon explains. RURAL SERVICES » PGG Wrightson Ltd / Jackson Spreading I interact with all the other touchpoints within Wrightson’s to help find a solution for that farmer. “In the farm system, I represent the animal. You can grow a wonderful crop and buy some meal, but what is it that the animal actually needs to perform to a high level? It’s identifying the needs of the animal to make sure we get that right.” Andrew acknowledges that when talking stockfeed, people used to immediately think palm kernel. He says it is great to see many more specific blends are now available, better suited to creating a more balance diet, supplement and complementing the farmers’ grass, winter and summer forages grown on farm. “The stockfood companies we support have specialists within their team who can help farmers with specific diets, while our team does it more on a macro basis. If we’re coming into a drought and the farmer is wanting to feed out to ewes in the autumn, the main thing needed is energy, while protein is not so important. “If we’re wanting to feed cattle or sheep in the first year of life, protein becomes more important. A lactating dairy cow may also need specific stockfeed to complement pasture, depending on time of lactation or the age of the animal. “In late pregnancy the animal needs a lot of protein as well as energy, whereas early pregnancy not so much protein is required. We need to look at minerals like iodine and selenium for cows coming up to mating.” Andrew would like to see Kiwi farmers storing more feed and seeing it as money in the bank when there are feed shortages. “I see too much reflex purchasing as farmers run short, placing them at the whim of the market. Rather than look at a blended meal for instance as costly item, focus on where it can help boost performance in your animals, like more milk solids per cow, or kilograms of liveweight gain. “ I would rather that we looked more at the big picture of what we’re trying to achieve, identifying the gaps in the diet and then filling them before they impact performance.” • from page 66 Spreading fert is quieter throught the winter too, with the focus on spreading just lime. Traditionally the quieter times are from now until the end of August, as spring conditions arrive. Full swing out on farms is from September right through to April, so these quieter times are needed. “Most Farmers stop spreading fertiliser on the 1st of May.” Jon says key to the businesses success and longevity is their loyal farmer client base. “We’re often working over their land more extensively than they are so if we see something isn’t quite right, we’ll do our best to fix it on the spot. Our farmers’ appreciate that extra level of care.” Located just out of Ashburton, the bulk of work is conducted through mid-Canterbury. By sticking to the basic service offering at this time Jon says he’s confident that business will pick up when farmer’s decide to invest in fertiliser once their payout improves. Jon’s always looking for ways to improve pasture growth for farmers and believes that further automation of the sector is the way to achieve this. Paricularly in the use of autonomous technologies, such as drones, and robotic spreaders. Oldest daughter Libby would appear to be following in her parent’s and grandparent’s footsteps with a keen interest in working in some way in the agricultural sector. At 16 years of age, competing Young Farmer competition would seem proof that this is the case. “We just want her to have lots of experiences 0800 SGTDAN (748326) Gorton Street, GORE Ph: 208 3965 E: admin@sgtdan.co.nz 0800 303 980 • www.vlime.co.nz Talk to our team today about your requirements: Producing high quality lime products for use in agriculture, animal health, dairy lanes, silage bases, feed pads and landscaping. Helping Jackson Spreading to grow Sue Russell before deciding in what direction she will head and we’re very proud of what she has achieved so far,” says Jon. Now in its 11th season Jon says it’s been really interesting watching the whole industry grow. He’s also quietly satisfied with where Jackson Spreading is at in its journey. “It’s great to see so many passionate people in the Groundspread sector. We’re trying to get Government to see we’re not a bunch of cowboys.”
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