On 1 December about 20 visitors walked the paddocks at Opou Station, Manutuke, near Gisborne.

This field walk was courtesy of David Clark and gave local farmers and industry people a chance to view his Precision Agriculture program in maize. 8 seasons of controlled traffic have benefited soil structure, biology and profitability at this site, along with a 50% reduction in fuel use. Fuel savings are due to the heavy cultivation operations becoming redundant after wheel traffic was isolated to permanent tracks using GPS.

David and Stuart Briant spoke about their adoption of GPS to control traffic and reduce overlap in their mixed cropping and specialized seed growing operation. They have passed the teething stage and are seeing benefits in efficiency and operator comfort.

Thanks to Clark Farming and F&D Briant for their support of LandWISE and this event.
For further information: Call James on 06 6504531 or 0272 757757, email james@landwise.org.nz or see www.landwise.org.nz for updates.