A turbo-boosted big red beet harvester attracted more than 200 farmers to a field day in Central Southland last week. The six-wheel-drive beet harvester was imported from the Netherlands about six weeks ago and was the centrepiece of a beet harvesting field day in Winton on Thursday.

Walling contracting owner/operator Ben Walling said the three-axled Agrifac Big Six harvester can lift about 100 tonnes of beet an hour for storing and feeding directly to cows in wintering barns or on feed pads. The high-energy beet bulbs have been fed to cattle in European wintering sheds for many years, Mr Walling said. When wintering barns became part of the Southland landscape the company began looking for beet harvesters around the world, he said. Beet harvesting was a dryweather activity but the machine handled the wet well and was the only six-wheel beet harvester in New Zealand, Mr Walling said.

Agricultural experts told farmers at the field day how they could successfully grow, store and feed fodder beet on their farms. Fodder beet was once a popular stock feed in New Zealand but fell from favour because a lack of herbicides for weed control made it a labour-intensive crop. Although many animals ate beet, almost all the field day attendees were from the dairy industry, Mr Walling said.

Agrifac service manager Hugo Bos said the Dutch company sold about 25 Big Reds a year and Russia bought the most. The harvester lifts beets from the earth, removing most of the dirt from the bulb before storing it while mulching the leaf back on to the paddock. Fodder beet is from the same family as sugar beet and is harvested from April to September.

By Shawn McAvinue, The Southland Times