Water plays a vital role in producing bountiful crops and nurturing healthy animals. Finding new products that promote water conservation and help reduce maintenance costs, allows farmers time to focus on improving their business rather than constantly fixing water leaks.

In Takaka, in Tasman’s Golden Bay, warm dry summers are a common occurrence. When a local farmer needed a solution to improve the farm’s water resilience, their local PGG Wrightson store offered the new KingPin Hinge Arm from Apex Valves.

Typically, as the hot summer days arrive, cattle get thirsty and aggressive at the trough. Traditional brass trough valve arms can withstand some knocks, though the concerted attention of a few hundred kilograms of dairy cow or beef livestock nudging at the trough valve often results in broken arms and overflowing troughs.

Not only do broken valves affect the trough in question but they can also lead to pumps running longer than necessary and a loss of pressure and flow to other troughs.

The New Zealand-designed KingPin Hinge Arm by Apex Valves is a well-engineered, stainless steel trough valve arm that offers a good solution for farmers. So much so that the Takaka PGG Wrightson team, led by Store Manager Sam Yeatman, chose one of their customers to trial the KingPin Hinge Arm on their farm.

The initial trial of one KingPin Hinge Arm soon grew to six, with the farmer quickly realising the ease of installation and cost-saving benefits. With a variety of Apex trough valves installed on the farm, it was essential that the KingPin Hinge Arm could be used in as many troughs as possible. Apex Valves produces three different versions that fit their most popular trough valves.

The KingPin Hinge Arm works by swivelling on a hinge. This means that the cattle can knock the arm without breaking it, barring exceptional circumstances.

When the arm is moved away from the centre by cattle, it naturally returns to its correct position without any help. The valve also operates well with the arm pointing out to either side.

With summer now over, but the warm conditions continuing, it is important to make a sound investment of your time and money by choosing a product that ensures water resilience on farm. The KingPin Hinge Arm, distributed by Hydroflow, helps achieve this.

The new KingPin Hinge Arm trough valve is in the latest Stock n' Save online at store.pggwrightson.co.nz.