New section control saves $35,000 at York

And it did not disappoint.

Simon and Sara Chipper, together with Simon’s parents, Chris and Melody, grow wheat, barley, canola and oats over 2900 hectares of their ‘Jimbin’ property west of York.

They also run about 1300 ewes.

This year the crops were sown with a Morris 9365 air cart and 12 metre (40ft) Concept bar set on 22.5cm (9in) tine spacings with a single shoot boot arrangement, after the family placed a late order for the air cart with Input Control Technology (ICT).

The air cart comprises two 6400 litre tanks and another 5000L tank used for Flexi-N liquid fertiliser.

Simon said they had six ICT sections with the air cart, which translated to six two metre (6.5ft) sections across the bar.

He said they well understood the advantages of using section control for spraying and also had recognised the amount of overlapping at harvest via their GPS guidance and yield mapping.

“We have very irregular, undulating paddocks with lots of trees and rock heaps and have been concerned about overlapping issues for some time,” Simon said. “We thought we were overlapping by about 10 per cent.

“We thought if we saved 5pc we would have been happy, but after comparing paddocks this year with last year, we have ended up saving 9.2pc over two thirds of our program.

“That’s 213ha, which is about four fills.

“We have a couple of big, open paddocks where the savings were about 6.5pc, but it went up to about 12.5pc with the more difficult paddocks.

“We saved nearly $20,000 in compound fertiliser and $5500 in Flexi-N, plus the seed (wheat, barley and canola).’’

He said the section control had saved them at least $35,000 in total product.

This was also from completing just two-thirds of their program due to the late order for the machine.

“In about three years, we should get our money back after trading up from the previous Morris air cart, which was onto its third season,’’ he said.

“The Topcon X30 controller worked really well, although it was a little weird not seeing some grain and fertiliser coming out of boots at the end of runs.

“It knows three seconds before it gets to the end of a run and shuts itself off.’’

He said he would definitely recommend the technology to growers, while the support from dealer McIntosh and Son at Wongan Hills was excellent.

The Chipper’s Morris air cart is also capable for variable rate input applications and Simon said that may be the family’s next step.

Morris, through its national distributor McIntosh Distribution, has a limited supply of the 9 Series air carts with ‘Input Control Technology’ (ICT).

For further information on the Morris 9 Series air carts with ICT, growers can contact their nearest Morris dealer or visit www.mcintoshdistribution.com.au or www.morrisaustralia.com.au