Feeding between five and six hundred head of Aberdeen angus cattle a day is no easy task. Four years ago George Shuttleworth took steps to ease the process on his seven hundred hectare 'Wantwood' property up 88 Valley, near Wakefield by combining a standard baleage feeder (normally towed behind a tractor) with an Isuzu 4-wheel drive truck. The engineers said that it couldn't be done, yet the equipment has almost paid for itself with labour savings and an ease of practicality.
George uses the rig to make the average 25 kilometer, 12 bail-a-day exercise both quicker, less labour intensive and gentler on the land. Stan and Vern Malcolm, of Malcolm machinery in Richmond were very accommodating in the innovative use of a low ground pressure, dual-purpose vehicle to meet George's requirements.
"There are very few units like this in New Zealand", George said, "the hard part was the change in geometry, and no-one had done it before or knew of it."
And it has turned a two man, five hour operation into a 2-2½ hour exercise for one and allowed more valuable time to spent on other jobs. George quipped that feeding out the conventional square bales would just about kill you, where as now it's more death by air conditioning.
It's still a huge operation however with over 1,000 tube wrapped bales produced on the property and stored at a centrally located pad. The mower, baler and wrapper are held in syndicate to offset the substantial capital outlay. It's now possible to make nearly the equivalent of 2,000 conventional square bales a day.
The food value is up to four times higher than most hay feeds, and tube wrapping can give up to 40% higher energy rating than the single wrap.
Recently, 'Wantwood' have moved away from the more conventional acidic fertilizers to choosing chelates, micro blasted lime and liquid fertilizers and the benefits are clear.
"There's more livestock under the ground than on it - worms, bacteria and micro organisms. Two years ago, with the worst drought in years, and we grew grass right through." George explained.
Getting the cation exchange capacity at the optimum means a soil can hold up to six inches of water, a boon during the extended dry periods.
Currently it's the opposite however, having experienced a lot more rain than is normal this season the paddocks have been cold, wet and waterlogged. George commented, "we're as short of feed now as we have been since spring last year."
Despite the wet, George's land is quick to recover and standing up well due in part to his innovative baleage feeder with it's low impact on the soil. They were originally working on a ten year return on investment, but these days it looks like it'll be five.
Malcolm Machinery gets all sorts of unusual requests and as Stan Malcolm put it, "everyone has different requirements and being flexible is all part of the game."
