The benefits of disc seeders, direct heading canola and on-farm storage

Robert Ruwoldt,

Keywords: disc seeders, direct heading canola, on-farm storage

Take home messages

• The benefits of disc seeders definitely outweigh the negatives but disc seeders are not for everyone
• Direct heading canola has reduced our harvest grain loss compared with windrowed canola
• On-farm storage allows farmers to become price makers rather than price takers

Disc seeders and why.

We started to use disc seeders back in 2003 as we needed to advance our crop production system.

We had gotten to a level with tines and thought to advance we had to change to using a disc to continue the improvements.

There have been many issues to make them work in our world but we will not go back to tines, no way.

We need to retain residue for longer and the tines were burying too much and once buried it just disappears. This then left our soil nearly bare after legume crops and then the risk of erosion became too great.

The discs do not bury any residue so it lasts for 12 months longer and then we grow more cereals to get back our cover.

Speed is another main reason as with CTF we have gone back to 9.144 mt and we need speed to get over the country.

Another main driver is much less soil disturbance; the disc does not invert the soil, so the impact on our natural biology is very minimal.

You have to really want to go this way as if you are half hearted about it you will not succeed.

One of the main things you need to change is your brain, you have to start thinking like a disc wants you to think and throw all the tine data out.

The benefits definitely out weigh the negatives but they are not for everyone.

Direct heading canola

Our reasons for direct heading were:

• We were continually having trouble with wind blowing our swathed canola away as well as a large loss at harvest picking the rows up.
• The cost to swath and the job itself we don’t have to do anymore as well as the machinery ownership is no longer, we sold the SP windrower.

Once we started to direct head we lost both issues straight away and to such an extent we sometimes do not need to spray out summer weeds as most times in canola the biggest weeds were the self-sown canola.

We have had some very windy weather while the canola is ready to harvest and have lost very little.

In the wet harvest of 2010 we had up to 9 inches of rain and lots of wind and we still got on fine.  It would rain an inch today and after lunch tomorrow we would be back in the field harvesting. Most of the windrowed canola was shot and was ruined.

On-farm storage

On farm storage is a must have in today’s economic climate.  The way the too few companies try to rip our farmers off at every opportunity is not going to change unless we get a world-wide long term shortage of grain (food).

Farmers have always been price takers and somehow we need to turn ourselves into price makers. Without on-farm storage you have no opportunity to do that.

There are three options we use:

• Sheds are a good option when you have insect free grains to hold and large quantities, e.g. lentils, beans and chickpeas.  We still put both wheat and barley in sheds but the management needs to be a little better.  We still use aeration in sheds so it is a cheaper per ton price to get into large tonnage storage.  Sheds can be used for storing machinery the rest of the year or having parties in so they have many added benefits that any silos do not.

• Cone silos are by far the easiest option as they require the least amount of management with lots of options to control insects.

• Flat bottom silos are the most expensive option but good in every other way.  They have all the benefits of cone silos with the negative of being a little more work to empty out, but make sure you have enough tons to justify the size otherwise it makes for expensive storage.  One ton of grain in the flat bottom silos means they are full as far as putting in any other grains.

Contact details

Robert Ruwoldt

38 Mctavish Blvd Horsham 3400 

glenvalefarms@bigpond.com