Farming in New Zealand

Driving through Canterbury to go to Mt. Cook, we had the privilege of seeing many farms - big and small. Canterbury is much like Kansas in that it is flat and fairly dry. Their "sod" is a plant called tussock, which is difficult to cut through but it saves the soil. After a fire, they come back rather rapidly, nice and green, but as they mature they turn brown and only the new growth is green.

They call their fields paddocks, and they portion off the paddocks into smaller areas to graze their animals. When that area has been grazed enough, they move their animals to another portioned off area. New Zealanders take credit for inventing the electric fence, which started when a man bought a new car and his pal, Joe the horse, was none too fond of it. Using the car battery, the man arranged an electric wire to shock the horse when he pulled near to the car. We found the most interesting thing to be, however, the hedge rows. In Kansas, our hedge rows are a mess of cedars, osage orange, elm, and other trees, creating a bramble that is functional but ugly. We noticed that the hedge rows here look like this:

We are not sure what kind of machine they use to trim them so nearly, but it makes their farms look quite neat. The farmers also have center pivot sprinklers as well as smaller mobile units, and although water is not always plentiful, they have created a system of lakes and canals that feeds water to many of the farmers. Ingenuity! Also, one farmer became bored and decided to invent something - the jet boat. That technology is what is used in numerous applications, including the Jet Ski. Who knew?