LIKE most Mallee grain growers last season, the Brown family at Berriwillock had some challenges with their continuous cropping program.
Receiving only a little over half your typical spring rainfall will tend to put crops to the test, although they were thankful some good summer rain at least provided significant subsoil moisture to tap into.
One element which didn’t prove to be a challenge, albeit perhaps surprising to some, was switching to a new bar at seeding, also despite knowing little about the particular machine brand.
Greg Brown and his brother Stephen, together with their wives, Elise and Michelle, sow 3800ha including some leased country to wheat, barley, canola, lentils, vetch, faba beans and hay crops, while they also run up to 2000 trade sheep across their properties.
Greg and Elise’s sons, Jaiden and Jake, and Stephen and Michelle’s son, Chris, who are all working in the agricultural industry, are all interested in taking over the reins in the future.
Travelling 225km between their Mallee and Goulburn Valley properties, they are conscious of machine transport width and wanted to find a strong, heavy bar similar to their previous 12m rig, but with a narrower transport envelope.
After scanning far and wide, they eventually came across the South African-manufactured Equalizer min-till tine seeder, distributed by Waringa Distribution.
“We would have bought the same brand machine we had, but its travelling width is too wide,” Greg said. “We need it to be as narrow as possible, and the Equalizer saved us a couple of metres.
“It was the only heavy-built 18m machine with that width. A lot of other machines have a narrow transport width like the Equalizer, but they are not as heavy.”
The robust design of the Equalizers features the use of Domex steel throughout the tine units and 10mm thick frames.
“A lot of people in this region are looking to go to 18m (wide) and it’s just the transport width that needs a close look at,” Greg said. “A lot of machines have a narrow fold, but you can compromise in what you are buying.
“The Equalizer is a simple, strong, sturdy machine, and that’s what we wanted.”
The Brown’s Equalizer min-till seeder features hydraulic coulters at the front of the bar, the tines are set at 30cm spacings and they are now using narrower, 10mm knife points and traditional double-chute seeding boots for separate seed and fertiliser applications, followed by Equalizer’s narrow press wheel option.
The seeding rig also incorporates a 12.5-tonne, triple bin John Deere tow-behind air cart and is easily pulled by a 470-horsepower John Deere 9470R tractor.
“The coulters help get through the trash, but they also open the soil and when the tines then come through, the soil doesn’t shatter as much,” Greg said.
“We had our reservations going to the narrower point after using half-an-inch, and we went from using inch-and-a-half hose back to an inch, but we had no problems.”
He said the family preferred the consistency of dry-sowing into their mix of good through to challenging soils, rather than managing variable soil moisture profiles, and they were impressed with the seeding performance of the Equalizer.
“The transport width with the bar got our attention initially, but the seeding depth accuracy is also very good,” Greg said.
The Equalizer features a spring-loaded depth adjustment clip that allows operators to quickly and easily select from nine different depth settings. A parallel pressure spring also easily alters press wheel packing pressure from between 17-32kg for improved germination results.
“The easy depth adjustment on the parallelogram and the press wheel pressure adjustment is very accurate,” Greg said.
“Adjusting the closing tool engagement into the furrow is critical and the way it is designed means it is quick and easy to make subtle changes.
“Visually, we were just very impressed with the germination and establishment – it did a bloody good job.
“We wanted a similar machine to what we had, with the transport benefit, and the Equalizer has provided that and more. It was a machine that just fits, and we were focused on that more than the price, but that was also reasonable.
“Waringa (Distribution) took over the build and the commissioning, and they have provided great support ever since and have been quick to resolve any issues.”
He said other local growers had shown interest in the Equalizer seeder and more were being sold throughout the wider region.
“We have had some interest, and they are putting together a lot of machines that are going over the river (into southern New South Wales),” Greg said.
