Seaward Downs is a small Southland farming community on the banks of the Mataura River some 8kms Southwest of Edendale and half an hour from Invercargill. Hamish Blackmore and his brother have been managing their family farm for more than 15 years. They converted to dairy from sheep and beef and have been running a milking herd of 750 cows.
Like many farms in the district, Hamish grows beet for winter feed because it’s a high-yielding crop and good value. The farm, however, had been struggling with a severe wild turnip issue over the years, which was affecting the beet yield. In 2023, on advice from their local PGG technical field rep, they decided to trial the Conviso Smart System, to control the wild turnip and reduce the number of sprays.
Hamish explains:
“The benefits of using the Conviso Smart system are that it can control the wild turnip, which we have historically had issues with on this property. And obviously being able to control the wild turnip, it increases our yields, and another benefit is fewer sprays that need to go into that crop.”
While at the time of the interview, Hamish had yet to graze the Conviso Smart fodderbeet crop, Hamish is already impressed by how the paddock looks.
“The Conviso crop is looking good. It’s still got a dark green colour and it’s very uniform and clean…we’re looking forward to seeing how it goes.”
The numbers are stacking up too. It doesn’t take too much effort to realise the cost savings of using the new system, and Hamish is already a convert.
“I would definitely recommend the Conviso Smart System to other farmers because of what I said, it controls the wild turnip, which can be very expensive and actually the growing of the crop is going to be considerably less compared to the conventional growing of traditional beet.”
