Wandering graingrower Brendon Hardie took delivery of a Western Australian manufactured Ausplow 12-metre DBS D260-46 seeding bar last week, courtesy of Boekeman Machinery, Brookton branch.
Mr Hardie, a third generation grower, said it will be the first time he’s availing himself of the DBS brand at his property, BC Hardie and Co.
This season Mr Hardie kicked off his seeding program on April 12, and all in all plans to sow 587 hectares of IT canola, 633 hectares of Bannister oats, and 230 hectares of Maximus barley.
“I’ve been growing all these varieties for a long time, and maybe about four to five years with IT canola,” Mr Hardie said.
Last year’s yield was a good result for Mr Hardie, with 5.3 tonnes per hectare for his oats being a particular stand out.
So far Mr Hardie estimates he’s had approximately 68 millilitres of rain.
“It’s better than last year, definitely; that rain in March was pretty nice, where had about 35mm of rain,” he said.
Mr Hardie was convinced to purchase a DBS seeding bar on the word of a few of his friends, who’ve raved about the resulting yields.
“I’ve always got different people driving the seeder, so I just want something that’s going to get good seed placement and work well,” he said.
“Just something strong that will be able to keep ticking over.”
Mr Hardie’s worker, Edouard Robidel, has been operating the seeding rig this season.
“It (the DBS bar) is very good, and easy to use,” Mr Robidel said.
It’s a considerably bigger bar than Mr Robidel is used to working with, having operated just a four-metre seeding bar back at home in France, Normandy, on a 200 hectare farm.
Boekeman Machinery sales consultant Bimbo White, who’s been selling DBS bars to growers since founder John Ryan began manufacturing in 1995, said they’re uniquely suited to WA soil conditions.
“The way the tyne goes into the ground, it brings the moisture up from the bottom – they call it ‘capillary reaction’, and that’s how germination happens quicker,” Mr White said.
Mr White said not every bar has that capability.
Ausplow sales and marketing manager, Greg Bunker, said the ‘260’ on the bar refers to the spacing of the tynes, and ’46’ is the number of tynes across the bar.
“The serial number of this bar is 2000, so that’s a big feather in our cap for Ausplow,” he said.
The unit Mr Hardie had delivered was an eight-wheeled, dual chute, with an air kit and dual liquid system.
“He (Mr Hardie) is running the Pro-D knife blade, fertiliser boot and closing tool, and the 141 press wheel,” Mr Bunker said.
All Ausplow DBS bars are manufactured in their Naval Base factory on Leith Road, where they’re also cut and painted.
“Then they’re brought up to Cockburn Central, where we assemble and dispatch from there,” he said.
Mr Bunker expounded on Mr White’s point, saying the predominant selling point of Ausplow’s DBS seeding bars is the tynes’ and blade entry into the soil is at a vertical angle.
“DBS stands for Deep Blade System, which is a three-slot system,” he said.
“Our first slot is the blade cultivating the soil depth and shattering the soil, so it’s all pliable and allows air into the soil underneath.
“The second phase is the closing tool, which prepares a firm seed bed where the seed goes to, and the third part is the covering wheel, which comes along behind and moves a long the soil in a way that covers the seed, establishing that seed to soil contact.”
Mr Bunker said the important part of sowing is to put the seeds at a depth where the moisture is and where it’ll have the chance for optimal germination.
ARTICLE FARM WEEKLY – By Rhys Tarling
