A GOAL to bring production to the “next level” has led to the introduction of WA technology in the Upper South East.
Brothers Tim and Matt Eckert farm at Mentara Park, Malinong, near Meningie, with parents David and Gwenda, and this year rolled out their use of a Plozza plough to tackle their problem soils.
Last year they trialled the WA-developed Plozza plough last year and found it so successful they used it on 300 hectares of their 3500ha cropping program.
Tim and Matt said about 10 per cent of their cropping land had non-wetting sands down about 70 millimetres, on top of hard pans that range from 150-200mm.
“There is a few hectares in each area that are underperforming,” Matt said. “That is 10pc of the paddock doing absolutely nothing.
“To achieve the next level for our yields, we need those to catch up.
“The first step in getting non-wetting areas to perform was to get germination.
“We’re trying to increase the bucket of available moisture to achieve sufficient germination.”
Tim said even with sufficient moisture at sowing, without breaking through the hard pans, established roots would not be able to access subsoil moisture.
They found that conventional ploughs did not invert the soil enough while the Plozza plough – made by converting a 30 plate 5GP John Shearer plough, removing every second arm, giving 15 inversion discs on a hydraulic jump machine – inverted the top soil and broke up the pans on a single pass.
Tim said the results last year gave them the confidence to keep trying it this year.
“It was daylight and darkness from the ploughed to the non-ploughed,” he said.
Despite “one of the driest starts to a season” they have had, Matt said it was still worth using the Plozza plough, as it allowed germination, providing some coverage on their soil.
Tim said they had concerns about the potential for erosion, with them inverting their top layer of organic matter about 30mm deep.
But he said the plough allowed them to work land that would normally only be possible on 25mm of rain, after just 5-10mm.
Matt said they had considered other options, such as spading or mouldboarding, but were cautious about risking expensive machines on their limestone reefs, rocks or stumps.
He said in the past they had trialled spreading clay, deep ripping and would look at delving to improve the consistency across their paddocks.
“The whole (Plozza plough) rig was easy to set up and, fully set-up, was about $9000,” he said. “It’s a very low-cost for quite a good response.”
TIMING KEY TO AWARD-WINNING RESULTS
PERFORMING tasks at the optimal time has helped develop award-winning hay at Malinong.
Earlier this year Feed Central named the Eckert family as having the best cereal feed analysis test in Australia. The Commander barley hay had metabolisable energy of 9.1 megajoules per kilogram of dry matter, with an average moisture of 13.4 per cent and 0.2pc protein.
Matt and Tim said they baled about 8000 bales of hay and straw each year, targeting the domestic market.
They say their hay success is partly due to good agronomy, while owning their own machines allows them to work within optimal time windows.
The Eckerts continuous crop about 3500 hectares, usually a mix of wheat, barley, canola, beans and lupins – often trialling new varieties – as well as 500-600ha of renovation each year.
They also run about 3000 Merino and Border Leicester-Merino first-cross breeding ewes.
Matt said they had invested in their own grain and hay storage to even out the cashflow.
“We’re trying to market our own product 360 days a year, rather than just at harvest time,” he said.
The Eckerts are predicting average to slightly below average yields this year, but say the quality appears to be OK.
“A month ago, things were looking very promising; we were only a couple of rains from another blockbuster,” Matt said.
“June and July had set us up for a pretty good year but the drier finish has taken its toll more than we’d hoped,” Tim said.