Photo caption: Michael Williams (left) and wife Joanne, property owners, with farmer Dylan Liddelow, McIntosh & Son, Narrogin branch sales representative Dave Rogers, and Furrow Friction Flow business development manager, Robert Baines at the Williams Football Club community cropping program during 2026 seeding season.
Credit: Rhys Tarling / Farm Weekly.
Club’s community cropping program. McIntosh & Son product specialist, Shane Perkins, Narrogin branch, operated the rig a New Holland T9.670 tractor, a Morris 9682 TBT air cart and Morris 18-metre Quantum seeding bar putting in about 100 hectares of canola for this year’s seeding program. Mr Perkins said the Quantum seeding bar’s Auto-Lift and Auto-Pack systems were undoubtedly its standout features. He said these two features ensure uniform seed placement and excellent soilto- seed contact, regardless of the soil conditions.
The two features work in tandem; the Auto-Lift engages and lifts tynes with precision, and Auto-Pack dynamically applies the correct pressure for consistent seed placement.
On the subject of the Morris 9682 TBT air cart, Mr Perkins said they were simple to calibrate.
“They usually have three granular tanks and one liquid,” he said.
“This one is a 9 Series cart, so it has a mechanical drive for the metering system, whereas the 10 Series has an electric metering system. “The 9 Series is a fairly straightforward metering system, but the 10 Series one is where it gets a bit more technical.”
“Fuel and fertiliser shortages have certainly been the choice of conversation for the past eight weeks,” said McIntosh & Son, Narrogin branch sales representative, Dave Rogers, who attended the demo day.
“I’d say it hasn’t affected main crops, but for secondary crops, the less important ones, they’re less likely to be a part of the equation if the thought is that it’s going to be tight.
“A lot of guys have had enough diesel and fertiliser to put the crops in, but it’s just whether they’re going to get that secondary top up of fert and enough fuel; probably
eight weeks ago you would have said it’s a real concern, but maybe slightly less so now.”
Mr Rogers said the main point of conversation among growers was on how the crops would finish.
“There’s the thought that, maybe the yield won’t be there, but the price of oil is up, which means that canola oil is probably going to follow the same trend,” he said.
“But it’s all guesswork; every farm you go to has a different theory as to where they’re at and what they are going to do.
“It’s hard to put a generalisation over it – I was talking to a graingrower and they said they were all fine, that they were going to finish seeding by the end of next week, and they’ve got enough to finish the program.”
But for some of the bigger farmers, the worry is there, and they are figuring out the repercussions of rearranging a cropping program ‘on the fly’. Where man-made
disasters have been gumming up the works, nature has been kind. “The season has started about two weeks earlier than usual, catching everyone by surprise,” Mr Rogers said. “There was a good rain right before Easter, and all of a sudden it was on.
“We’ve had mechanics going absolutely flat out. “The soil moisture here is beautiful; there’s no dust trailing behind the seeding rig, and normally at this time of year there would be clouds of dust coming in.” Williams grain producer Tom Piesse, who is one of many who help to maintain the football club cropping program, which rotates between barley, oats, and canola, said it has been a successful venture.
“It’s funded all sorts of things over the years,” Mr Piesse said. “We’ve put money into a big electronic scoreboard, and recently we purchased a bus that the community utilises as well.” Although Mr Piesse didn’t highlight exact figures from last year’s barley yield, he said it was profitable.
Growers interested in learning more about Morris 18m Quantum Air Drill and Morris Air Cart can contact their local dealer.
