| 83 nzdairy Specialists in land based effluent discharge As legislative and environmental pressures increase in the move towards 100% landbased discharge of dairy effluent, Stratford’s Hinton Contracting is offering the best alternative to permanent irrigators with its farm dairy effluent and irrigation services. The Hinton family has been agricultural contracting in the Stratford area since the 1930s, growing from hay and silage contracting into all the support services needed on farm. As the business changed hands two years ago from Mark and Wendy Hinton to the fifth generation, Daniel Hinton and Sheridan Standen, the couple started looking into how their business could assist its clients with their environmental compliance. Hinton Contracting now focuses on pumping and irrigation services, mainly for effluent but also for water. “As long as it’s liquid, we can pump it,” Daniel says. In her previous role, Sheridan was an environmental scientist, while Daniel managed the effluent department of Hinton Contracting for many years. The couple’s expertise in this area will see them develop quality environmental compliance services. “The requirement from our clients is changing a lot at the moment,” Daniel says. “Traditionally, our work has been based around cleaning out working effluent ponds that discharge to water. “Now farmers are moving towards discharge to land, and all Fonterra farms must be 100% land based discharged by 2025. “The majority of our work now is looking after farmers who either don’t have their own irrigation systems or are struggling to find the time and staff to operate their own. “A lot of small farms aren’t wanting to outlay the capital involved to install a permanent irrigation system and large farms aren’t want to leave the responsibility in the hands of their staff. “It’s a big responsibility and can be very time consuming and stressful, especially when its not going right. Even farmers who have their own system installed are using us more and more. “Their ponds can fill up pretty quickly and if we can empty them out in a day it allows farmers to reset and focus on the other 1000 jobs they have in front of them. Keeps the staff happy too.” Kelly Deeks Dribble bar in action. Inset: Muckspreader. TRADE SERVICES » Hinton Contracting Ltd The cleaning out of working effluent ponds is still a big part of Hinton Contracting’s business and Daniel recommends these are cleaned at least once a year to keep them working properly. “We can spread within a 1400m radius of your pond, meaning you can put effluent where you want it. With our low-mess dribble bars, paddocks are left as clean as possible, allowing farmers to graze them again much sooner than with other systems.” Daniel says to get the most out of discharging effluent to land, the trick is to empty the pond while the ground is dry and the weather is fine. “You’ll get all the benefit of those nutrients and moisture in the summer. You can see where we have put the effluent, the grass growth just takes off.” • Lube Services • New Tyre replacements 56 Juliet Street, Stratford 06 765 6527 admin@dksc.co.nz Dicksons Service Centre • Mechanical Repairs & Maintenance • Trailer Hire • Diagnostics Check out our new shop products For all your car needs: DICKSONS SERVICE CENTRE • Wheel Alignments
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