By TIM ELLIOTT - The Sydney Morning Herald
Some people use propane cannons, others use nets. But Rod Windrim prefers
disco. The Hunter Valley winemaker has installed dozens of disco balls in his
vineyard in a novel attempt to deter birds from eating his precious grapes. And
the plan is working.
"We put them in six weeks ago," Mr Windrim says. "And the results have been
amazing."
Windrim and his wife, Suzanne, own Krinklewood Vineyards, a 20-hectare vineyard
at Broke, in the Hunter Valley. The region's free-draining loam is ideal for
producing the classic Hunter varieties of semillon, chardonnay, verdelho and
shiraz. But it's also ideal for producing flocks of ravenous cockatoos, silver
eyes and leatherheads, which have in years past destroyed up to 50 per cent, or
50 tonnes, of the vineyard's yearly harvest.
Until recently Mr Windrim used a complicated system of radar-activated speakers
which broadcast bird distress noises.
"It's basically these speakers that go whaa-whaa-whaa incredibly loudly," he
says. "And when I say loud, I mean like change-your-underpants loud."
The speakers worked, Mr Windrim says, "but they also sent my neighbour insane".
Other vineyards use propane cannons or gas guns to deter birds, or employ staff
to walk around blasting shotguns.
But none of these solutions seemed to suit Krinklewood's earth-friendly ethos.
"I was looking through viticulture trade journals for a subsonic dog-whistle
type thing when I came across the disco balls idea," Mr Windrim says. The
Chinese-made disco balls are 30 centimetres in diameter and hang on a bracket
just above the grapes, meaning they don't have to be removed at harvest time.
There are 30 of them, and the slightest movement sends shards of light bouncing
across the vineyard, scaring off the birds. "The balls cost $40 each," Mr
Windrim says. "But they've reduced our loss rate to about 5 per cent."
