Under Cover Greenhouse Starting to Take Shape
Now when you drive past Tucker Road you can see the massive metal frames of the huge 11-hectare greenhouse proudly standing up out of the ground.
Battling weather conditions and labour shortages, our project team has employed additional local labour to help support our specialist team from South East Europe.
Our construction team has been focused on the smaller three-hectare back greenhouse. We’ve now installed all of the steel pillars, the water system, and have covered parts of the frames with the specialist plastic roof.
The size and magnitude of this project is really starting to take shape as a quarter of the larger greenhouse steel structure has been completed. Even a large concrete mixer looks small in comparison to the greenhouses!
Part of the water system which makes up the high-tech irrigation system has been attached to the steel frames. Pipes now run underground for hectares, all the way from the back greenhouse through to the dam. This system, helps to make this project completely self-sufficient for water.
Rainfall collected from the roof of the greenhouses will be stored in the dam and used all year round within the greenhouses. When it’s fully operational, the greenhouses will consume 800,000 litres of irrigated water a day from the supply dam and treatment tank.
This is leading technology in New Zealand and will completely revolutionise the way we farm in the future.
We’re aiming to have completed the entire roof of smaller greenhouse by the end of February.