A MEREDITH farmer has been getting great results on uncultivated paddocks with his coil tine seed drill, ANDREA MAYES writes
Daryl and Kelly Wells farm 600ha at Meredith, running a 2800-head self-replacing Merino flock, breeding first-cross ewes for sale.
- IN A WORD
- MAKE: Agrowdrill
- MODEL: AD700
- LIST PRICE: $57,000 incl GST
- BEST FEATURE: Daryl said the Agrowdrill is heavy and well built, and provides unbelievable accuracy.
- MORE DETAILS: Hewitt and Whitty (03) 5336 1344 or Daryl Wells Contracting 0418 535 713.
About 700 Merino ewes are joined to Merino rams, and another 700 to Border Leicester rams.
Daryl is Meredith-born and has farmed all his life.
He still works with his father, Barry, and said they began with a small block to which they've added others during the past 15 years.
Daryl and Kelly have two sons, Kade, 5, and Brodie, 3, both of whom enjoy the outside farming life.
Kelly handles the bookwork for the farm and attends university two days a week where she is studying nursing.
Daryl can turn a hand to shearing, getting through 270 sheep a day when he does.
The Wells grow 250ha of crop, including 60ha of barley, 80ha of canola, 40ha of wheat and 70ha is sown to pasture.
They also grow a summer crop of 30ha of Winifred rape. The terrain is mainly flat and open country with grey loam soils and bore water for stock.
In March last year, the Wells bought an Agrowdrill AD700 from local dealers, Hewitt and Whitty, trading in another brand of drill that was three years old.
Daryl wanted the heavy-duty Agrowdrill to help build a contracting business he began last year with 120ha of contracting work in addition to sowing on the home farm.
He tows the drill with a 20-year-old 108kW Massey Ferguson 2705 tractor, which he maintains and services himself.
"I'm handy when it comes to mechanical things," Daryl said.
"I knew what I wanted from the Agrowdrill but the results we've been getting - you have to see it to believe it," he said.
"In the spring I sowed 30ha to Winifred rape into paddocks that hadn't been cultivated in 30 years.
"The soil was very tight and compacted.
"I used 140kg MAP to the hectare, instead of the usual 110kg, to give it a bit of a boost and the crop came up beautifully.
"I had 400 lambs fattening on it between Christmas and the end of March and it was still 500-600mm high," Daryl said.
"You could only just see the lambs."
Daryl said he chose the 22-run Agrowdrill AD700 because he liked the way it was built.
"I looked at a few brands but the Agrowdrill is big and heavy and designed for intensive use.
"Also, I had heard the calibration was very accurate.
"I'm more than happy to recommend it," he said.
The Agrowdrill has a heavy-duty, fully welded frame with a coil tine assembly.
The large capacity, dual compartment hopper has a twin distributor metering system and individual lids to prevent cross-contamination of contents and provide easy access for cleaning.
Daryl widened the tine spacings out to 200mm and put on Manutec press wheels, attached by U-bolts to the last of the four Agrowdrill tool bars.
"It's a strong machine with heavy breakout tines and double shoots," Daryl said. "It gives you more flexibility for direct drilling so there's no need to cultivate the country at all.
"Instead of having harrows at the back dragging heavy trash, the press wheels just follow the little groove I make and the trash rots down naturally.
"You've got no dramas at all, trash-wise, and you don't need any other cultivation machinery."
He doesn't use a roller because of soil compaction.
"I just need to firm the seed-to-soil contact and the press wheels do a great job. We're sowing around 50ha a day with it and it can easily handle more.
"It's a lot quicker and more accurate than anything else I've seen," he said.
"I'm using about four litres of diesel per hectare and I'm very happy with that," he said.
"Once you calibrate it, which takes about five minutes, the accuracy is unbelievable.
"When you think how small canola seed is, I can sow at below 3kg to the hectare and get great results."
