38 | nzdairy DAIRY PEOPLE » Dr Ian Scott: Oraka Deer Park Effluent system upgrade a focus for diverse farm business • from page 36 •The whole system is compact and visually less obtrusive than other options considered and this will be important if, as happened in the past, overseas farming group tours ever recommence in a post-covid era. And if life on the farm isn’t busy enough Ian is still practicing actively as a large-animal farm vet tending to 12,000+ cows for his farmer clients. As well, he oversees the auditing of the velveting programme in New Zealand. He employs a contract milker on the dairy side and part-time calf feeder, while the deer and cropping operation employs three other staff. In the past Ian used to welcome agricultural students from overseas, as well as domestic students, and he carries concerns about the lack of New Zealanders wanting to engage at a young age in the agriculture sector. “The staffing situation drives most farmers bananas. Most of my vet clients are running businesses of between $10 million - $25 million. They have to be able to employ people with serious management/business skills to be making the best decisions.” Ian also has strong feelings about the negative impact an over-regulated, sector creates. “You can’t regulate to produce inventiveness and this is the very thing that drives innovation. Regulation produces mediocrity. Farmers are continually problem-solving and innovating; this is what should drive on-farm decisions, not fixed measurements or compliances set by others.” And when time permits, an ongoing programme of tree-planting around Lake Okoroire, the only peat lake remaining in the South Waikato and part of the lake Road property, provides Ian with immeasurable pleasure. “We’ve been taking care of the lake’s surrounds for years now. It’s enhanced water quality, involved the community and school groups and is a wonderful part of my farming life. My aim is to plant 50,000 native trees in my time.” Oraka Deer Farm includes mixed wapiti and red deer. The dairy herd peak milks 400 Friesians. Latest dairy effluent technology utilised When Ian Scott wanted to upgrade his dairy e luent system to something more along the lines of an urban sewerage system he contacted Ian Jamieson from Tauranga based Kliptank™ to help him realise his vision. Instead of the traditional anaerobic dairy e luent storage pond he wanted something that could store and apply e luent aerobically which is precisely what Kliptank o er. “I brought all of the parties together to achieve Ian’s vision,” says Ian Jamieson. “Ian Scott was extremely interested in the wastewater treatment things that our KlipJet™ technology do and he was particularly looking for things like soil improvement that our wastewater treatment process could bring to his farm.” As the Market Manager of Dairy at Kliptank Ian Jamieson’s more usual solution for a cost-e ective upgrade would include their patented Kliptank: an e luent storage tank capable of holding anything from 200 cubic metres to 5600 cubic metres. Kliptanks are expressly designed for above ground storage in areas with high water tables explains Ian. “Our tanks are extremely good for soft soils, swampy soils, farms which have peat, farms that have soils that are crumbly and not good for holding structural things, and anything with a high water table. We o er an important lightweight solution for those situations.” Not having any of those issues and speci ically wanting an in-ground solution Ian Scott went with a more expensive concrete storage solution from Taranaki Pre-cast Concrete while continuing to work with Ian and others to achieve the aerobic e luent treatment he wanted. It’s the human wastewater treatment typically used by municipalities all over the country but quite new to the dairy industry. It involves introducing dissolved oxygen into the e luent, in this case using KlipJets, which feeds the aerobic bacteria which work to keep the system healthy. “If you imagine something that’s left without aeration it becomes anaerobic, it becomes toxic, it smells bad, and it gets quite nasty,” says Ian, “and when you put that kind of stu on your farm, applying it to your paddocks, you’re actually literally poisoning the soil, and cows don’t like eating the grass that’s treated with it.” While designed to work in Kliptanks the patented KlipJets work equally well in other tanks or ponds. The KlipJets provide a stirring and wastewater treatment process for the stored e luent and key to their e iciency is that they use the same pump that is used to run the irrigators applying that aerated e luent to the pastures. Ian’s design speci ied all the necessary electronics to enable that pump tomanage the di erent workloads for the two processes, and collaborated with Laser Electrical Services who installed the fully automated system remotely controlled from the cowshed or cell phone that Ian Scott wanted. KlipJets measurably improve the amount of dissolved oxygen in the dairy e luent Ian Scott uses for irrigation, and Kliptank and Ian Scott are now working together doing trials to quantify the soil improvement. “We’re looking to growmore grass,” explains Ian,” which is measurable by the amount of dry matter, and we can measure the metabolisable energy of that grass. We want to prove that KlipJets improve pasture performance while being environmentally friendly.”
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=