A MULTI-purpose seed drill is providing good cropping results at Dookie, reports MARK SAUNDERS

But a wet start to the summer and the purchase of a new cultivator bar and air seeder at Melbourne University's Dookie Campus has led to the forage crop being sown in Victoria's North East.

The sorghum, more popular in northern NSW and Queensland, will provide a summer feed source for livestock at the campus farm where 800-900ha of crops are planted each year.

Dookie campus farm manager Frank O'Connor said the sorghum was planted into a wheat stubble following about 30mm of rain post harvest.

"The new seeding equipment in combination with GPS technology means we can now plant in between rows and that's where the sorghum has been planted," Frank said.

At the heart of the new equipment is a Ryan Guidance CT Planter with a working width of nine metres.

The planter was bought earlier this year and used to sow most of the campus' winter cereal crop in the autumn.

Frank said buying the Ryan planter gave the farm far greater flexibility in its cropping program.

"The planter can be set up to run as a tined machine or with discs," Frank said.

"The tines provide some cultivation at planting when used with a knife point and using the discs allows us to sow at high speeds with accuracy.

"The Ryan is twice as wide as our previous cultivator and it follows the ground contours beautifully.

"We can sow about nine hectares an hour with it, no problems."

"And we can use it sow pasture."

The campus made the move to the larger cultivator, and Gason air seeder, as the amount of crop grown has increased in the past few years.

"We have gone from about 600ha to almost 900ha of crop this year," Frank said.

"We are also looking at making paddock sizes larger to further increase the efficiency of the cropping program."

While the Ryan planter and Gason air seeder are towed with a 111kW Ford tractor, which is closing in on 30 years' service, Frank said it performed well.

"The tractor hauls the sowing equipment no worries plus we have added GPS capabilities to it, which makes it very easy to use," he said.

Paul Wallace is the assistant farm manager at the Dookie Campus and he usually drives the tractor at sowing.

"It's an older tractor but the GPSAg system is plumbed into the tractor's hydraulics so we can drive hands free to an accuracy of 2cm," Paul said.

"It certainly takes a lot of stress out of driving the tractor."

The cropping country at the campus has also been extensively soil tested.

"We are in the process of extensively mapping the soil data and we hope to be able to combine that with the new equipment next autumn and move to variable-rate application of seed and fertiliser," Frank said.

As for this year's crops, Frank said the sowing gear had performed well.

"The germination of the crops was nice and even and the seed placement was very accurate," Frank said.

"The Ryan coil press harrows did a great job."

Paul Ryan, the designer of the planter, said the machine was designed for inter-row sowing applications.

"The planter is an excellent performer for sowing into stubble and conserving moisture when using minimum tillage with tine or disc openers," Paul Ryan said.

"The unique quick-fit system of tine to disc makes changing to suit different conditions quick and easy.

Germination rates can also be improved thanks to the planter's contour-following, press-wheel system.

"The patented spring-coil-press wheel gives the crop the best opportunity to germinate evenly," he said.

"The coil press wheels will perform in wet or dry soil conditions as the coil continually squeezes or flexes to clear mud and trash.

"And in wet conditions, when the narrow seed furrow stays open, the coil wheel can be turned on an angle to pull the soil back over the seed."

Most of the winter cereal crops this year at the Dookie campus yielded 2 1/2 to four tonnes a hectare and Frank said that was about average for the area.

"I reckon they would have yielded more but it got very hot early in November," Frank said.