GREATER seeding efficiency is one of the benefits of an ultra high pressure water jet seeding system demonstrated at a South Australian No-Till Farmers Association event at Owen on Tuesday last week.
SANTFA research and development manager Greg Butler said the AquaTill system overcame many of the challenges faced by knife-point and disc systems.
“With knife-point systems, growers were having trouble with the amount of stubble in their paddocks,” he said.
“With discs, there were issues with the penetration of the disc into the soil and also with seed-bed utilisation. By having fertiliser in smaller and smaller bands, it made it more concentrated and toxic.
“Another issue with discs was hairpinning, especially in damp conditions.”
Hairpinning occurs when damp stubble bends as the disc goes across the soil.
This pushes the stubble into the soil, putting a barrier between the seed and soil, causing germination issues.
“Hairpinning is much worse when stubble is moist, particularly in the early morning and at night time,” he said.
“A lot of times a paddock is trafficable, but it can’t be sown with a disc because of hairpinning issues.
“It’s not unrealistic to think that a farmer could average 20 hours of sowing time a day, rather than 10 hours a day, by using water jets.”
Mr Butler said by getting seed in more quickly, a graingrower could easily pick up 0.25 tonnes a hectare to 0.5t/ha across their cropping program.
The development of the AquaTill system has taken place across the past few years.
In an effort to “look outside the square” for seeding solutions, SANTFA investigated other technologies and water jet cutting seemed to have a good fit with agriculture, particularly because of its precise results.
“Water jet cutting technology was established 25 years ago,” Mr Butler said.
“It is used in a lot of industrial bakehouses. With things like vanilla slices, if you use a knife to cut them, the custard will just go everywhere, but with a water jet, it all stays in place.”
With a lot of residues on soft soils, SANTFA thought the application would work just as well in the field.
In trials, some further adaptation is still required.
“Understandably, the system is most efficient on wide row spacings because less nozzles are used, like when sowing legumes, canola and the majority of crops around the world like corn, soy and sorghum,” Mr Butler said.
Using ultra high pressure water cutters at seeding could also open up new crop opportunities.
One of the major benefits of the new seeding system is its ability to cut through heavy and problematic residue, such as what is left behind after a linseed crop.
“Linseed is a profitable crop that we could grow more in SA, but the tough and flexible residue can be a major problem to deal with,” he said.
“We have trialled the AquaTill technology on linseed in NSW and it worked remarkably well.”
The technology can also use some liquid fertilisers as the cutting media, offsetting water requirements and offering options for liquid fertiliser application.
“With traditional granular fertiliser application, it can be toxic if it is concentrated in one area,” he said.
“But using a consistent liquid stream may reduce toxicity and increase nutrient interception, because the fertiliser isn’t concentrated in one spot. Also, the fine roots of the plant can easily find the fertiliser anywhere along the band.”
Mr Butler said two international seeder companies, one in Australia and one in Canada, had signed agreements to commercialise AquaTill and bring it to market