08 August 2022
McIntosh Shady-Brae
UPGRADING to a new seeding rig primarily for improved seed placement also has delivered a host of other welcome benefits for the ‘Shady-Brae’ cropping enterprise in Victoria’s Wimmera-Mallee region.
Always appreciated by seeding system operators is much less maintenance and easier operation, both big ticks with their latest sowing unit.
‘Shady-Brae’ is run by Heath and Anne Campbell, together with their Assistant Manager Tim Wardlaw and Farm Assistant Alistair Michael. Heath and Anne’s daughter, Danielle, also works on the property.
They continuously crop 3400 hectares to wheat, barley, canola, faba beans, lentils and vetch over soils ranging from heavier ground through to sandy loams.
Up to 9000 tonnes of the grains is stored on-farm and marketed to local users throughout the following season, while canola and excess supply of other products also is sold into bulk handlers.
Tim said the crops had been sown with a John Deere seeding bar and cart, but the quest for better seed placement had prompted investment in a Morris Quantum air drill and 9550 air cart through Belle-Vue Trading at Warracknabeal, also despite considering several other systems.
He said while they didn’t follow a precise controlled traffic farming system, machine tracks only moved slightly from year to year and the resulting compaction proved difficult for the John Deere bar to handle.
“Sometimes the John Deere tynes were not getting in and the seed was sitting on top, and when we did get deeper into the compacted areas, other parts of the bar would then dig too deep,’’ Tim said.
“Going to the parallelogram with the Quantum has been really good with the seed placement. Last year and again this season, the seeding depth has not changed. Last year was a good test with everything going in dry – if we had troubles, we would have seen it then.
“We went across every row last year and we could find the seed – and everything germinated right. After our second season with it now, we would not change a thing.
“It’s a heavy bar and while it is not over-engineered, you can tell a lot of engineering has gone into it. It will dig 2 inches deeper if you want it to – we stalled a 520-horsepower tractor.’’
The new air drill also features Morris Auto-Lift for automatic lowering and lifting of tines, as well as Auto-Pack for automatic packing pressure to correctly close furrows, which Tim said had helped to take the guesswork out of operations, although they will still manually adjust pressures in sandy areas.
“We used to do all our headlands first and then fill the paddocks in, causing more compaction. Now we sow the paddock and do the headlands last, so there is not so much overlap and compaction, and the paddocks look neater.’’
They also can adopt automatic end-of-row turning for perfect teardrop turns, however Tim said with the operation of the system being so easy, this season he continued to perform his own turns just so he didn’t get bored.
Row spacings were adjusted from 30 centimetres (12-inches) used previously into 25cm (10in) with the 18-metre Morris Quantum air drill for faster crop canopy closure and, hence, improved weed control and grain yields, but it also did not trouble its trash handling ability despite running into 3.5-4 tonne crop stubbles.
“We seed down the middle of the rows, but you still need good trash flow and the Quantum had no problems,’’ Tim said.
They had maintained the use of a second-hand Protrakker required when they purchased their higher, 520hp John Deere tractor, thinking it would be necessary for inter-row sowing after returning to 25cm (10in) row spacings, however Tim said it was not needed.
“It does the inter-row sowing easily. The rows were dead straight, so we turned the Protrakker off.’’
Tim said they also were impressed with the stainless-steel tubing with the upright air kits on the Quantum for durability, the large flotation tyres and narrow transport width, which was narrower than the tractor, and he said the Topcon X35 controller in the cab was “an amazing system’’.
“It looks busy, but it is so simple to use – it’s easy to bring something up and change it.’’
Seed rate accuracy with the 19,000-litre, triple bin, tow-behind Morris air cart was excellent once set.
“We only calibrated once this year and it is extremely accurate – you don’t get any variation. And it’s easy to do just sitting at the box using the App on your phone,’’ Tim said.
The use of a conveyor with the air cart instead of a traditional auger was another pleasing feature.
“We thought it may be a bit slower, but I can fill the machine in 20 minutes using two trucks on my own. The John Deere used to struggle with that,’’ Tim said.
The conveyor also is quieter and prevents seed damage, which is particularly beneficial when handling lentils and faba beans.
“Everything with the box is easy – it’s easy to change seed varieties, to clean it out and the conveyor is easy to use with the hydraulics. Everything just works,’’ Tim said.
“You are not stuck on your back putting manifolds in and you don’t have to exert any major pressure to change anything. It can all be done by hand, which is great with Danielle working on the farm as well.’’
He said the easy operation also extended to machine maintenance.
“We have found that there is very little maintenance day-to-day. We are not using the grease gun as much. With a DBS seeder there are four to five grease nipples on each parallelogram. There are about 20 grease nipples on the whole Morris bar and box and we only do it weekly. Even if it was daily, it still wouldn’t be a big drama.’’
“And if we get eight to 10 years without replacing bushes, we will be happy.’’
Tim said Belle-Vue Trading and Tony Williams, the local representative with national Morris distributor, McIntosh Distribution, had both provided great support for the seeding rig.
“Tom (McInerney) from Belle-Vue knows the basics and Tony is very good and gets back to you quickly – what he doesn’t know, nobody knows, but we haven’t had too many issues,’’ he said.
