SINCE the early 2000s, the Pocock family have slowly integrated precision agriculture into their southern Mallee farming operation, progressing to a controlled traffic farming approach for the first time last year.
Robert Pocock, with wife Courtney and parents Bruce and Gaylia, crops 1000 hectares at Smithville, north-west Lameroo, alongside 1670 breeding ewes, which include their 800-ewe Lampata Poll Merino stud.
The family also contract crop a further 1000ha.
Robert, was a guest speaker at a recent SPAA Expo in Lameroo, where he outlined how they had incorporated PA on-farm, which also included variable rate application of inputs.
“Our ultimate aim with PA is to make a good return in a decile 3 season, not just in the good years,” he said.
“We want profitable crops on every hectare we own and as often as we can.”
In 2006, Pococks begun to take a PA approach after buying a new tractor, which featured basic auto-steer.
“We then had some of our worst seasons from 2005 to 2007,” he said.
“But these years highlighted how much we were over-fertilising crops for the yields we were achieving – spending more than we needed to on low-performing crops.”
They then started looking into the benefits of VR technology.
In 2010, the Pococks decided to make the most of a new header that was able to yield map and a new airseeder that had VR capabilities, and moved into full VR.
Using yield maps, along with other on-farm information, such as EM38 and normalised difference vegetation index maps, they were able to zone the various soil types on-farm to enable more “zone-based” applications of fertilisers and seed.
Robert said the first focus was the application of phosphorous.
“DAP skyrocketed to $1000/t so we wanted to make sure it was going where it was needed because it was so expensive,” he said.
“We were able to cut our P use and started a P replacement program."
The seeder system also featured John Deere RTK technology, which enabled steering with repeatable 2cm accuracy.
Robert said the technology, along with the introduction of a ProTrakker guidance system, had enabled them to inter-row and edge-row sow as needed.
“We want to edge-row sow eventually, within 5cm of the previous crop run, as we believe any residual nutrients and moisture are stored at the root of the previous year’s crop,” he said.
“But this season, it is being used to make sure we get the seed sown inter-row to manage stubble residues.”
Robert said edge-row sowing had been beneficial to establishing lucerne and legume crops which require more moisture than cereals during establishment.
“It’s hard to quantify benefits yet, particularly with the good season last year, but we have definitely seen a visual difference, certainly in what can establish on the minimal moisture reserves in the edge of the row,” he said.
Such precision is also beneficial in their CTF approach.
“The aim is to continually minimise crop and stubble disturbance and erosion,” Robert said.
“We have typical Mallee dune swale country, prone to erosion.”
But they have yet to change their tractor and header off dual tyres, because of difficult sandhills.
“The logistics of trying to have the header and chaser bin align and not run across paddocks has also proved difficult, and is more time consuming,” he said.
“We also run livestock, so some may say we can never be true CTF.
“But anything we can do to minimise crop and stubble disturbance and erosion through different machinery tracks will be beneficial to our country.
“One day we may even use a chaff deck to then cover those tracks to further reduce erosion.”
A liquid fertiliser system has also been added to the seeder to apply trace elements with the seed and wetters behind the press wheel.
“About 30pc of our cropping program is non-wetting sands,” Robert said.
“This (liquid system) has helped with crop establishment on non-wetting sands, and wetters are used depending on the season.
“The liquid system also enables us to apply trace elements at seeding instead of spraying with herbicides in-crop.
“We can now use cheaper forms of trace elements because we don’t have to worry about compatibility when mixing them with herbicides, so we have also been able to use less expensive herbicides.
“It’s essentially halved the price per hectare, this savings will soon pay off the installation of the liquid system
“Putting trace elements out with the seed also enables the plant to use the nutrients from day one, instead of it being applied halfway through its crop life.”
While having the capability, Robert said they have yet to VR apply trace elements.
“We have actually stopped any VR application the past few years, because we need to update our data,” he said.
“In the next year, we will be revising the zoning information we have, to adjust and focus on the next aims for our farm, such as nitrogen management and seeding rates.
“We would rather blanket apply in the meantime, instead of possibly under-fertilising using the present information we have.”
Robert advised it was really important to have zoning information right, because opportunities could be missed if information wasn’t correct or used correctly.
Seeding at the Pococks began in the first week of May, after 50 millimetres of rain the previous week.
“The weather caught us off guard as we weren’t expecting to start that early due to the forecast,” he said.
“But the early rain has meant our pastures have germinated well, meaning we may sow less pastures this year, so we’re not as behind as we first thought, saving us time and money.”