CONVISO SMART gets precious family time back

CONVISO® SMART

Innovative, broad-spectrum weed control system for beet growers. Powered by SMART KWS Seeds and Bayer crop science.
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Patrick's story

Just north of Burnham, Canterbury is Grange Road where grower Patrick Bell farms 250 hectares. This flat, arable land stretches all the way to the Southern Alps and is dotted with giant pivots bringing vital irrigation to the crops.

Patrick’s father put 47 years into the soil and for the last 10 years, Patrick has been working the farm in partnership. Together, they grow sugar and fodder beet, feed wheat and maize, and lease some ground out for potatoes and run a mob or two of sheep.

The investment into the centre pivot irrigation has changed their farming efficiency and they can grow a greater range of crops with better yields.

“In Dad’s day, he was dry land farming. He eventually got to put Rota Rainers on, but in the last four years, we’ve put pivots on and that’s really upped our efficiency,” explains Patrick.

Of course, with more irrigation come more challenges with weed control, so when KWS approached Patrick in 2020 about trialling their new CONVISO SMART system, (beet that’s bred to be resistant to herbicide) they were all ears.

The fewer weeds, the better the yield.

What attracted Patrick to the CONVISO SMART system was the ability to put in a crop of sugarbeet and knock broadleaves, thistles and grasses in one go.

In the first year, they undertook a large-scale trial with conventional crops and CONVISO SMART side by side. The difference was immediately noticeable. Clean paddocks with far fewer weeds.

The fewer the weeds, the better the yield – there’s less competition for your crop. So, with CONVISO, there’s less spraying applications. You’re not paying a spraying contractor and there’s less chemicals going on the paddock. It’s got to be good, doesn’t it?

- Patrick Bell

Patrick also likes the fact that he can get the CONVISO crop in the ground earlier. He’s growing sugarbeet for the winter grazer who takes the crop off the farm at the end of April or early May when herds are transitioning. The sooner they can get the crop off, the sooner Patrick can get back into wheat. Again, it’s all about yield. The earlier you can get the wheat in the ground, the better.

For a farmer with a young family, time is always precious. With 250 hectares and plenty of crops to rotate, any advancement that gives back time is always going to be welcome. Patrick sums it up:

“CONVISO is saving us a lot of time, which means more time for other stuff – like spending time with the family, which is important to me.”