05 October 2015
Nick Beer, Brendan Lee and David Brownhill, Merrilong Pastoral Company, with the Morris 9 series granular cart featuring input control technology (ICT) and 18-metre (60-foot) RAZR disc drill the Brownhill’s put to work at seeding on their property this season. David said it delivered extraordinary efficiencies.
Pictured is the excellent crop germination on the Brownhill’s property sown with the Morris system.
DAVID Brownhill has only ever purchased three winter crop seeding machines in his 25 years of farming, so it’s fair to say he’s quite particular about the technology he invests in.
David and his brother, Gordon, own Merrilong Pastoral Company, a 6500-hectare mixed cropping and livestock enterprise in the Liverpool Plains region in North West New South Wales.
Of the 6500ha, the Brownhills grow summer and winter crops, with 1500ha under irrigation and 1400ha dedicated to grazing cattle.
The brothers are big advocates of no-till cropping, having employed the practice since 1995, with the entire property now devoted to controlled traffic.
Their early interest in no-till farming meant there was limited available machinery specifically designed for the method, so David and Gordon developed their own – the Ground Hound zero-till planter.
The Ground Hound served them well for sowing their winter crops, until they purchased an NDF disc planter, but they have recently upgraded to a Morris 9 series granular cart with input control technology (ICT) and an 18-metre (60-foot) RAZR disc drill.
This is the first season they have used the Morris system for sowing their winter program, which includes three main types of wheat (bread, impala and durum), as well as chickpeas and barley on an opportunity basis.
Summer crops include sorghum and cotton.
“I’ve only ever purchased three winter crop machines in my life,” David said.
“This time we wanted to go wider, but we were also looking for simple operation.
“The whole farm has been controlled traffic since 2002, on a 9-metre (30ft) system. All the wheel spacings on the tractors are just over 3m (120 inches).
“We’ve got 18 centre pivots so we end up with point runs, which means we end up with overlaps.
“We’ve also got large, long blocks here. Our largest field is nearly 6 kilometres long in one direction and because of our old 9m-27m system, on the edge of the fields we sometimes have to overlap by 4.5-9m. That’s why the ICT was attractive.’’
The ICT system is designed to eliminate overlap and works via GPS and the Topcon X30 controller with the Morris carts, using the gear drive system for the metering wheels to quickly engage or disengage, allowing instantaneous shut-off.
“We trialled the Morris last year with the ICT. Jeremy Matthews from WJ Matthews at Moree brought a machine down and we did about 300ha with it and we were impressed,” David said.
Following the trial, the Brownhills ordered their own Morris 9 series with ICT and RAZR disc drill in October last year and in April it was put to work to sow 1600ha of wheat.
David and Merrilong’s farm manager, Nick Beer, both agreed the upgrade had been well worth the investment, particularly with the ICT removing overlap and the extra working width translating to an increase in efficiency.
They also highlighted the RAZR’s ability to create minimal ground disturbance. They were the only farmers within a 50km radius who were able to continue seeding during wet conditions.
There have been a few adjustments made to the drill and David said they worked with WJ Matthews and McIntosh Distribution to replace the seed boots with some better suited to the property’s heavy clay soils.
“We’re pretty happy at this stage,” David said.
“While I haven’t worked out the exact figures yet, I would think the ICT has already paid for itself and the ease of management of being able to control it from the cab is a big advantage.
“The efficiencies for us have just been extraordinary. We’ve expanded our farm significantly over the last few years, so doubling our width has really made a difference.
“We ran demos on our farm with the RAZR disc drill and it was mind-blowing. For the cost of the machine compared with more robust models that are meant to go through more stubble, this machine does very well.
“That’s our biggest problem – sowing back into the sorghum stubble, which can be up to 800mm high.
“The way the RAZR works with the hydraulic accumulator and the pivoting point in the centre, so the weight is evenly distributed through the wheel at the front and the press wheel – it’s very clever.”
Nick spent more time operating the system and he said, overall, he was impressed, particularly how much faster seeding was.
“The ICT was great. We saved a lot of seed in the headland on the point runs,” Nick said.
“The twin tanks on the air cart are very good. We were able to do 80-100ha per load and we only had to fill up twice a day, which only took 20 minutes.
“With our previous system we would get 50ha per load, so compared to that it’s much more efficient.”
Click here for more information on Morris.