Pasture move opens ‘Gent’ opportunities

Using a Direct Seeding narrow-fold bar fitted with K-Hart Gent openers, company director Kim Lester is encouraged he is on the right track.

“We’ve only started this year and it’s a bit of trial and error with varieties but I’m impressed with the establishments we have achieved using the Gent openers,” Mr Lester said.

“We sowed Saia grazing oats and Graza 85 forage oats with a mix of clovers starting in March and by the end of the year we’ll have done about 2000 hectares, including about 600ha at our station property in Katherine (Northern Territory) where we will establish tropical legumes, sorghum and grasses to finish off cattle for live export.”

The Direct Seeding bar was transported to Katherine two weeks ago and will return to the Many Peaks property early next year.

“We’ll use the bar at any opportunity to establish winter, spring and summer crops and recently we established a millet, corn, sunflower and serradella mix and we’re also trialling Tef grass, which is a summer active grass with high energy,” Mr Lester said.

With 400 breeders and 3000 grass-fed cattle at Many Peaks, Mr Lester has a rotational grazing program involving 20 to 30ha paddocks.

“We don’t graze hard, always leaving a bit to maintain quality,” he said.

“We put them in paddocks for seven to 10 days and pull them out for 14 to allow regeneration before they go back in.”

Using the Gent opener has been a pleasant surprise for Mr Lester, after using a variety of combine seeders over the past 10 years.

“I’ve never been 100 per cent confident with discs but I was impressed with the seed placement in a year which was probably our worst ever,” he said.

“It went into a marginal moisture scenario but because the discs sort of peel the soil back and place the seed in the sidewall, old root pathways weren’t disturbed and we got moisture from the old root pathways.

“We got 10 millimetres on it and it germinated in seven days and while it struggled a bit in the heavy mulch conditions, it got away and by July we got substantial rain that pushed it ahead.

“It’s what we wanted because our winter sowing is a major focus for us to control kikuyu.

“We are able to sow into heavy kikuyu thatch and spray afterwards.

“It’s a big issue penetrating the ‘kike’ but the Gent openers did it easily.

“We also had no issues with hair-pinning and the Direct Seeding bar was perfect.

“I’ve always wanted a narrow fold bar to quickly get through small gateways into paddocks and this one fits the bill.”

According to Direct Seeding general manager Stewart MacTaggart, the Gent openers excel at cutting residue and minimising soil disturbance.

A 350mm disc is mounted on the upper side of a 425mm disc which is fastened at a 25 degree angle from vertical.

Coming together on the leading edge, the discs slice a small angled opening in the soil for seed placement.

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Deflection of the soil is minimal, allowing the soil to remain in position to cover the seed.

“It’s just like peeling back carpet,” Mr MacTaggart said.

“We’ve tested the Gent openers in hard conditions and we’ve had no issues with penetration in a variety of soil types.

“We’re saying you can get about 20,000ha of life out of a set of discs.

“The design of the Gent opener, with its paired discs mounted at an angle, also means you achieve minimal sideways deflection of the soil, retention of soil cover, good residue cutting ability with reduced hair-pinning while achieving contour-following and accuracy of a parallelogram.

“We are very excited about the performance of the Gent openers which offers a new direction for farmers looking at pasture improvement and renovation.”