World record holder arable farmer of the year
Holder of the world record for wheat yield, Mid Canterbury farmer Eric Watson, was recently crowned New Zealand arable farmer of the year. He and his wife Maxine talked to Tony Benny.
When you arrive at Eric and Maxine Watson’s farm at Wakanui, out towards the coast from Ashburton, Mid Canterbury, one of the first things you notice is there are no fences; this is cropping land and Eric’s not interested in livestock, so he doesn’t need them.
‘‘It makes for quick access,’’ he laughs, ‘‘And it does make it easier to keep it tidy because you don’t have to spray the fence lines, you just mow them.’’
He and Maxine have farmed here for 25 years, growing a range of crops including cereals, perennial ryegrass and fescues, vegetables for seed, and alternative pasture species, depending on what there’s a market and a contract available for.
They used to farm lighter land at Ealing, a border-dyked property where they ran sheep and grew some crop but that didn’t really suit Eric.
‘‘All I wanted to do was go cropping but it took quite a while to find a good farm.’’
The farm they moved to is on what they regard as the best land in Canterbury, with Wakanui clay and silt loam, perfect for growing crops. When they first arrived they winter-grazed dairy cows on their lighter land for a few years but that didn’t sit well with Maxine.
‘‘I said no. They were on river terraces and very close to the river and it was not going to be sustainable and if we hadn’t stopped, we would have been stopped.’’
They’ve grown all sorts of crops over the years including fava beans, linseed and evening primrose, a range of vegetable seeds, triticale, maize and wheat. They’re now waiting for the ground to be dry enough to sow wheat, and vegetable seeds.
This year, seemingly constant rain has held them up for months and Eric just can’t get machinery into his paddocks.
‘‘It was a shocking autumn and winter and spring doesn’t look much better – it’s just too wet,’’ he says.
And big rain events over the past month have only made it worse.
‘‘We haven’t done anything since mid-may. I woke up at half past three this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep. It was bucketing down. I was pretty scratchy, it’s just so frustrating.’’
Normal annual rainfall is about 630mm.
‘‘Probably by the time this rainfall event finishes, we’ll have had 800mm and we’ve still got four months to go.’’
But in other years the climate is much kinder, something that contributed to Eric taking the world record for wheat yield last summer. He was in part inspired by South Canterbury farmer Warren Darling, who had taken the record for barley, and by Bayer Crop Science rep David Weith.
‘‘Bayer inspired me to have a go because they thought I could probably do it and I was told by a few other people I could do it as well,’’ Eric says.
‘‘It is almost beyond the farmer to do this alone. You have to register it as an attempt before you even sow it and it has to be surveyed, you have to check everything off along the way. The conditions of harvest are incredibly complicated and it’s a huge undertaking,’’ says Maxine.
Autumn weather and ground conditions were perfect for sowing the feed wheat but the winter was so mild the Watsons were afraid the crop was growing too fast and were relieved when a cool spring slowed it down.
‘‘It was closely monitored and it did look a good crop but it’s always hard to tell right up until harvest,’’ Eric says.
Keeping a close eye on his yield meter during harvest, Eric could see he was on track but he wasn’t sure because he knew the meter read about 1.5 per cent on the low side.
‘‘It was a bit terrifying when I got in with him,’’ says Maxine.
‘‘I looked at the yield meter and said, ‘Is that for real?’ because it was looking fantastic.
‘‘I went up and back twice and we hit a patch which had quite a lot of wheel marks in it (causing a lower yield) so I thought I’m getting out of here, I must be the jinx,’’ she laughs.
When the last load went over the weighbridge, certified auditor Murray Roberts told Eric he’d broken the record.
‘‘Eric looked vaguely in disbelief at him. He looked a bit sheepish to start with. It was pretty exciting,’’ says Maxine.
The new record is 16.791 tonnes, eclipsing the previous mark of 16.519 tonnes, held by Englishman Rod Smith.
‘‘I don’t go out to seek attention, I never have,’’ Eric says. ‘‘I owe it to Bayer because they put a lot of work and involvement into it. It’s also what you learn on the way through from years of experience.
‘‘There are no secrets. It’s a combination of many factors: knowledge, variety, weather conditions, and attention to detail – that is crucial. It’s not letting the crop lack for anything it needs, pretty much.’’
Though he’s not one to blow his own trumpet, Eric Watson is widely respected for his innovative thinking and knowledge of technology, which he and Maxine harness to improve productivity. Eric was this year named Federated Farmers’ arable farmer of the year.
They embraced precision farming techniques nearly a decade ago. Their tractor, harvester and sprayer all have Gps-guided auto-steer which, with a base station for differential correction, gives them accuracy to 2cm. Their sprayer has auto-nozzle shut down to prevent any overlap and they use variable-rate spreading of phosphate, potash and lime with the aim of creating a more even fertility across the paddock.
The farm has been mapped using both soil tests and electromagnetically to give an accurate picture of what’s beneath the surface, its fertility, composition and water-holding capacity. Seven of the farm’s nine lateral-move irrigators use variable rate technology.
Soil tests are done every second year and nitrogen testing is more frequent. ’’Eric knows exactly how much nitrogen it takes to grow a tonne of wheat. The idea is that you put it on when the plant needs it so the plant uses it all and what’s left is negligible,’’ says Maxine.
While other farmers fret about Environment Canterbury’s evertightening nutrient rules, Maxine isn’t too concerned by them. ’’You’re supposed to have a farm environment plan and all the rest of it if you’re over 20 (kg of N/ha) and on Overseer we’re just 20. If you do the version that FAR has come out with, we’re 8.
‘‘I think we already do everything we can to be as efficient as we can. We monitor everything including soil moisture and how much nitrogen is in the soil before we add any more.’’
Eric doesn’t own a plough, preferring ‘‘non-inversion, mintill’’ techniques and sometimes direct drilling, depending on the crop and soil conditions.
‘‘It’s heavy cultivation gear, high-capital, high-horsepower requirement stuff. I can’t afford to plough because you bury a lot vegetable seeds and you’re better to keep them on top.’’
It’s best to let those seeds strike and then spray them rather than leaving them in the ground because if they come up in another crop they could be hard to get rid of. ‘‘Pak choys the worst – they could come back in five years if you keep burying them.’’
But what’s on Eric’s mind now, as a wet winter looks likely to continue into spring, is when he can get his crops in the ground.
‘‘We’re facing big problems in the spring to open up some of this ground because it’s got so tight (because of the rain). I might have to look at tines to open it up and let the air in.’’
‘‘The later it is, the harder it gets,’’ Maxine adds. ‘‘Suddenly it’s going to get dry enough to work and everything’s going to need to be done at once.’’