Right on cue as the first weaner sale of the season started at the Dannevirke Sale Yards on Tuesday November 7 a pump arrived to resurface the prime sheep pens with new concrete.
It was part of the continuing maintenance and development of PGG Wrightson's stock yards around New Zealand,according to National Stock Yard Manager for the company, Gavin Jeffcoat.
It follows investment in new calf yards built at Mangatainoka early last year.
A spectacular sight as the concrete pump extends into Dannevirke's Sale Yards
Gavin said the stockyards are very old and the surface had disintegrated so badly where prime sheep are sold that both sheep and people were tripping, so it was decided to re-concrete.
Initially the plan was to cover the worst surfaces towards the centre of the yards but concrete trucks broke the surface closer to the road during the first pour, requiring the whole area to be replaced.
Contractor Glyn Castles of G-Squared said the decision to use a concrete pump from Kevin Bartlett Concrete Services in Palmerston North was easy to make.
Managing the nozzle is a tough challenge.
He estimated if five men had used barrows to move the concrete it would have taken eight hours.
