Bruce Hunt from Bordertown South Australia, comments on their initial requirements for a new seeding system and the results achieved by their final choice:
Their requirements included:
After considerable research, including crop inspections, field days, demonstrations and a lot of talking to dealers, manufacturers and farmers, we decided that the Excel Single Disc fitted on a single row with 24 units, spaced at 375mm and towed off three point linkage, would be a good replacement for our 28 run trash seeder.
The Excel Stubble Warrior Planter proved a good choice. With our season completed on below average rain (i.e. no spring rain), quality remained good and yields were near average. As well seed and fertiliser rates were reduced by 20-30%.
Excel's Single Disc had no problems with the deep ripped sand over clay soil (i.e. extremely soft) while planting barley and canola. Heavy clay loam with stubble was a breeze when it came to planting beans, lentils, canola, wheat and barley and even planting immediately after 15mm of rain.
All crops on stony ground had better seed placement than ever before and no areas required post-seeding rolling. Our tractors coped well planting 10 ha / hr using 15litres of diesel / hr.
Excel Agriculture mounted the 1500 litre tank on the custom designed and built bar for us. This allowed us to inject liquid trace elements and nitrogen ahead of the seed. With a three-lap head land, we can plant up and back on consecutive runs. The machine has 3-point linkage manoeuvrability and can plant while turning. The single axle 4800-litre bin is on the same 2-meter track as the tractor and bar.
With the 375mm row spacing, soil disturbance and soil throw are close to zero. Most of all the stubble is undisturbed and requires no preparation between harvest and planting. The wide spacing on a single row cost approximately 50% of a 2 row trailing unit on closer rows. The savings flowed on through fuel, seed and fertiliser.
The flexibility of being able to plant either before or after knock down sprays has increased the opportunity of early planting and well timed knock down spraying post planting.
For further information on Excel's complete range of agricultural products, contact us.