PROTECT
Good Stuff From vineyard waste to farm fence lines SOPHIE PREECE
Stu Dudley, left, and Greg Coppell A MARLBOROUGH business is turning one industry’s problem into another’s solution, one pile of posts at a time. Repost is the brainchild of Greg Coppell, who started repurposing broken vineyard posts into cost effective fence lines for his Nelson Lakes farm two years ago. Seeing the burgeoning need for fenceposts, including for the protection of waterways, and recognising the growing issue being faced by vineyards stockpiling broken posts, Greg “joined the dots”, says business partner Stu Dudley. “Handling them individually is quite difficult. We were trying to find an easier way to make it happen.” waste ends, but about 75% of the post is now being recycled, The vineyard posts are treated with copper, chromium while vineyards and farmers get a win. They are also looking and arsenic (CCA) to ensure they are long life. But they are for a solution to using half and full vineyard posts, rather frequently damaged by harvesters or wind, and break off at than just the quarter posts being reused now. “Obviously, it’s the ground, with a recently released vineyard post guideline a business, but we genuinely want to solve this issue.” indicating that 2% to 5%, or 11 to 29 posts per hectare, are In recent months, the Repost duo have developed a because they are treated, they can only be disposed of at portable post plant, with a 20 foot container that goes to a landfill or stockpiled on site, and the piles are “growing and vineyard site, where it removes clips and cuts the post to growing”, says Stu. size, leaving the site clear of posts and waste. It’s a simple He was viticulturist at Villa Maria when the two men solution for the problem, says Stu. “Greg has been working discussed the opportunity of taking on the post problem in on this for two years and in the past six month there’s been an organised way. Stu notes that farmers do occasionally get a lot of refinement.” in touch with growers, as Greg did originally, before taking He thinks there’ll be no shortage of vineyard operators a small trailer full of posts away, but “the ad hoc solution wanting the easy and cost-effective solution to their post wasn’t working”. problems, but the business also needs to build a market They went on to transform nearly 20,000 posts from for the posts. “We think essentially, with all the waterway Villa Maria’s Marlborough vineyards, removing the clips, regulations and the quality and affordability of the posts, cutting them down to the 1.8metre fencepost height for there will be quite a lot of demand.” sale, then taking the remaining broken ends to landfill. Stu repost.co.nz @repostnz says they are working on finding a different solution for the
“Obviously, it’s a business, but we genuinely want to solve this issue.” Stu Dudley
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Winepress April 2021 / 21
