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PRECISION AG
F
arming a 400 hectare family property in north central New
South Wales, David McGavin says he has had the good luck
tobe working in a good farming area – despite the weather
patterns of the past few years.
“Summer crops grow well there because they generally have
cooler nights, so the plant can recover... there is not a lot of
barley grown, but there is dryland sorghum and irrigated and
dryland cotton.
“It is normally an area where the soil is highly prized, but for the
past four to five years it hasn’t been like that – we have had some
pretty tough finishes,” he says.
It was back in 2014, when those tough finishes first started
happening, that McGavin and his father Tony started looking at
using yield mapping data, which they had been collecting since
2002, to start finding ways to make more of the property.
But, as McGavin says, it came down to more than simply using
the yield data to make a decision.
“The yield map was telling you that the yield was different there
- but there are a lot of factors that might come in to telling you
about why,” he says.
In their bid to ascertain which factors contributed to the different
yield patterns, the McGavins set out to collect soil data over the
property – using a Veris Technologies U 3000 – towed behind a
utility task vehicle (UTV).
Using the Veris, McGavin was able to assess soil salinity by
carrying out electroconductivity (EC) testing and also assess the
existing organic material (OM) on the property.
“The OM maps made really clear to us that areas on the farm
which had high organic matter were good yielding areas... we
basically put it down to those areas being able to hold more
sub-soil moisture,” McGavin says.
“That is what we decided to base our planting on – on areas
which we think of as an irrigated or semi-irrigated area, and
our dry areas, which is something we need to put a tougher
variety on.”
As a result, the family has started planting hardier varieties of
sorghum in areas where the soil struggles to retain moisture,
using a specially modified FlexiCoil seeder with double disc row
units to plant the seeds according to a multi-hybrid map.
Recent changes to the planter include improvements to the row
cleaners and introducing the FurrowForce closing wheel system,
which packs down soil firmly after planting to encourage seed
germination. McGavin says that the aim of the changes was to
broadly increase yields across the board.
“We never really set out to have areas that were yielding very
highly, but we just wanted to put the right varieties in areas that
had poor soils and were likely to give up in a tough year.”
“So we are not seeing a huge increase in yield in areas, but
we are definitely not seeing areas that have got next to no yield,”
he says.
The two species become ready for harvest at different times,
but the difference is close enough to justify starting in the middle,
he adds.
NEW PASTURES
McGavin tells Farms & Farm Machinery that he had started
distributing precision planting equipment soon after the family
started using the technology themselves, adding that multi-
hybrid planters were becoming very popular.
“Most of the interest is coming from areas that are lower
yielding, so tougher soil, moreso than areas that are always
growing good grain and getting good yields,” he says.
“Australian farmers – if they see something that will improve
their yield they will no doubt be the fastest in the world to adopt
it – and far, far quicker than America.”
But while the family started with Veris to help it generate data,
it had now moved on to using and distributing the SmartFirmer
system, produced by US company Precision Planting.
McGavin says the SmartFirmer system helps produce a high
definition map of organic matter in a paddock as well as taking a
soil moisture reading.
“They are using that to adjust the depths of the row unit, so
we can tell whether the seed is getting put into the moisture
or if it needs to go in deeper – and the SmartFirmer will do that
automatically on the go.
“The most exciting thing for us, both as a farmer and in
selling equipment, is in where we are heading... they want the
SmartFirmer to determine what the row unit does – basically
becoming the brain,” he says.
“Because the row unit is thinking for itself and recording
and controlling, it is actually getting easier to plant far more
technically.”
It’s a process he plans to combine with a more old-fashioned
approach to soil amelioration, saying he would look at fertilisers
or cover cropping to boost soil quality in areas where organic
matter is low at present.
“It’s probably where we would need to go next, I think, he says.
“We’re making up our mind on that at the moment.”
Every paddock has its
good and bad patches that
farmers try to bring together
- but what if you could cater
to their separate strengths?
Andrew Hobbs speaks with
Liverpool Plains farmer
David McGavin, who says
he’s found a way
We can tell whether the
seed is getting put into the
moisture or if it needs to
go in deeper.
The SmartFirmer system, produced
by US company Precision Planting
plain solution