Photo caption: Mason Millsteed is armed and ready for seeding again at the family’s Wongan Hills property with their Morris 9445 air cart, which includes a 7000-litre liquid tank plus section control and variable rate technology (VRT), and 18-metre Quantum air drill.
WONGAN Hills grower Mason Millsteed took the family’s seeding cart into their local dealer prior to last season to get a bigger liquid tank, but they later took delivery of a completely new seeding rig that doubled their seeding capacity, achieved the best crop germination ever and triggered other local farmers to follow the lead after “looking over the fence’’.
Mason and his family operate Daybron Farms just east of Wongan Hills, cropping about 3600 hectares to wheat, barley, lupins and some canola and running a Merino breeding flock that has reduced to about 2000 head. They also manage 1000ha of leased land near Kalannie that, at this stage, is mainly carrying sheep during winter.
The home property features medium to heavy country running through to lighter, loamy soils and pasture has continued to be part of paddock rotations after several years of cropping.
Like numerous growers in the area for seeding, the Millsteeds have used a DBS Auseeder bar, which had performed well and been hitched to an 8300 Morris air cart with 3800-litre liquid capacity that they were keen to increase.
Mason said they were exploring the upgrade with the local McIntosh & Son dealership and after later considering other second-hand carts and comparing this with the price benefit of investing in a single brand seeding rig, they settled on a completely new system that was immediately put to work.
The Millsteeds expanded their working width by 6 metres to the 18m Morris Quantum air drill and coupled it to the manufacturer’s 9445 air cart, which included a 7000L liquid tank, plus the benefit of section control and more advanced variable rate technology (VRT).
“I did a ‘demo’ with the Quantum a few years ago and really liked it and before we bought it, we had a little seminar with the McIntosh team in Perth looking at how to use it correctly, how the tyne was constructed and the oil flow through the tyne, as well as the auto packing (Auto-Pack) system. We’ve been very well supported,” Mason said.
“We liked the auto raise and lower (Auto-Lift) and it has good weight – 18 tonnes across the bar, so 1t/m – which helps it stay in the ground and not break out.
“It digs miles better and deeper, it is more user friendly and there’s less maintenance – points last longer.
“There’s a little less room to change the points under the bar, but that’s not really an issue – we did 3000ha without changing a point.”
Pulled by a 410-kilowatt (550-horsepower) Case IH Steiger Quadtrac with a power chip to achieve 507kW (680hp), the Millsteed’s Quantum air drill is set on 30-centimetre tyne spacings and uses an in-line, dual shoot seeding boot configuration with knife points.
Mason said the Quantum achieved 15cm (6-inches) of subsoil cultivation, whereas 12.5cm (5in) was the maximum depth with the DBS bar and the tynes “kicked back easily”.
“The Quantum has 1500PSI of digging pressure – it doesn’t come out of the ground.”
He said the Morris Quantum also handled trash better than their previous seeding bars and the Auto-Pack system was extremely accurate.
The Millsteeds place seed at a depth of 15-20 millimetres, with compound fertilisers sown about 2.5cm below and liquid fertiliser placed at the bottom of the trench.
“It was the best germination we’ve ever had with the cereals. With the DBS, we would have some germinate on one day and some on other days. With the Quantum, it all germinated on the one day – and the Auto-Pack has a lot to do with that.”
Mason said caster wheels at the front of the air drill and trailing wheels at the rear also assisted easier turns on their AB run lines, while a narrower transport width was another bonus, requiring less shed area for the bar as well.
The family aims to complete seeding by the end of May to allow the best chance for crop establishment.
“You don’t want to be chasing tail, because if the season tails-off later, it can be a double hit,” Mason said.
However, they were slightly late sowing the lupins and canola last season due to finalising the machine arrangements and the average start to the season, and he said they were “a little silly” in deciding to “chase moisture” before a dry spell then prevailed. This resulted in the canola area later being re-sown to barley.
The Millsteed’s larger 9445 Morris air cart has dramatically increased their seeding productivity, jumping from 35-36ha per run up to about 70ha.
“It means we don’t have to run for 24 hours and has alleviated some pressures with workers,” Mason said.
“We seed about 14ha per hour with the 60-foot bar, so in 10hrs we have sown 140ha and we only fill up once after a first fill in the morning. With the old rig, we were filling up four times for that and it would take 16-17 hours, including fill times.”
He said they also had completed one year of varying product application rates at a more basic level with their previous seeding system after adding a Raven controller, however they were now implementing the advanced VRT with 90 per cent of their program.
“We still use close to our average product rates, but with lower rates applied in lesser areas and higher rates in the better areas. We had a couple of areas of paddocks hitting 7 tonnes/ha, so the VRT is starting to pay-off.”
Mason said the section control via the Morris Input Control Technology (ICT) with their 9445 cart was “really awesome”.
“It was showing up at harvest on the headlands with the yield maps, where you would normally have those darker areas. We only had a tiny area of overlap.”
“It’s definitely a good saving. We had enough fertiliser and seed left over to seed the 450ha area of canola to barley. We used a potash blend at 30-40 kilograms/ha and we still had more seed left up our sleeve.”
He said product metering accuracy with Morris carts was excellent and the Liquid Systems GEN 5 console delivering the liquid was “unbelievable”.
“We had good pressure across the board, with very little fluctuation in rate throughout the day.”
Double pivot geometry incorporated with their tow-between 9445 model was another great feature, further improving section control accuracy
Mason said a neighbouring grower was highly impressed with their crop germination and establishment last year and after keeping an eye on crops throughout the season, they were switching their bar over to a Morris Quantum air drill.
