Registered chemical applicator Kevin Neumann of Richmond has spent the last 15 years contracting for pest plant eradication and vegetation control to Transit New Zealand and local authorities on South Island roads.
Over 30,000 hours on the job makes him an ideal proponent for a proposal to reduce the use of chemical controls on roadside vegetation, provide an alternative culvert marker system, and at the same time potentially recycle empty agrichemical spray containers. Containers that no-one appears to want, and that are presently unable to be disposed of adequately.
EnviroTurf Ltd have developed a proposal for roadside vegetation control to achieve identical goals to those set out in C21, (Transit New Zealand current performance specifications) while reducing the amount of agrichemicals currently used by 40-50% in Nelson, 90% in Canterbury and 70% in the West Coast. And like most good ideas, it's a very simple one.
Each roadside marker peg, of which there are 52 per kilometre on New Zealand roads, would have an injection moulded plastic shroud placed at its base covering approximately 0.5 sq metre of ground. Called a vegetation control device or VCD, its convex shape would shed water away from the centre with an underside filled with cleaned pelleted waste plastics that could not otherwise be recycled. Bonded in resin to secure added weight and density, each VCD could utilise nearly 1 kg of non-remouldable plastics such as Ag/Chem containers, as well as support the marker post at ground level to bend in an arc when run over.
Kevin is also working on a VCD using cement to hold the non-recyclable plastics in place while incorporating a 90° hinge with a 15° tilt sideways adjustment to allow the VCD to match sloping ground. This will lengthen the marker peg life allowing it to be runover and return far more often than normal.
The VCD's would work in conjunction with a mower attachment being developed by EnviroTurf called a 'Whipper Snipper". Essentially a hydraulically driven industrial sized weed eater with a 24 inch cut, attached to the main mower by a flexible arm, it can be triggered electronically when the mower moves past an obstacle such as the marker peg clearing vegetation around the item without damaging it.
The 'Whipper Snipper' has also been attached to a versatile 4x4 ATV to follow along behind the main mower unit to cut less accessible areas. The future adoption of these devices could benefit many in the horticultural industry. Kevin was quick to point out the absurdity of a situation when spraying, "we are expected to spray a marker peg outside vineyards, that costs 78 cents a year to maintain, outside a $2million property. Why?"
Changes to culvert markers are also proposed as these markers are often placed close to culverts, but seldom close enough to be incorporated in the vegetation control of culvert headwalls. This often leads to a larger area having to be treated with herbicides to achieve control between the two items. EnviroTurf is advocating the painting of unobtrusive yellow marks on the road surface using a small template to define the line a culvert crosses the road. While suggesting the markers be replaced with a 150mm diameter injection moulded cap (plastic mushroom) placed 30mm below the surface which can be pinpointed and identified with handheld GPS, and also allow full access for mowers completely removing the need to spray.
Kevin presented the proposal to Transit New Zealand two weeks ago and demonstrated his systems to two Transit officials last week who were very excited by what they saw but Kevin feels it needs to be followed through to head office where decisions are made. "The people that make the decisions and policy need to be aware that there is an alternative out there," he said.
EnviroTurf Ltd are presently putting in an alternative tender for a vegetation control contract on 32 kilometers of heavily populated and scenic areas in the Golden Bay eliminating the chemical applications and using solely mechanical means. "Hopefully we will get a contract we can use for a trial so it can get some recognition, we are very confident that what we have built will achieve that." Kevin added, "this machine is the ultimate for organic weed control underneath grapes, kiwifruit and olives, it can bounce along the base stems of the plants without cutting them."
