As he gears up for planting his 2024 crop, Quairading farmer Darryl Richards is reflecting on how modern sowing techniques mirror an old practice of soil amelioration known as Whittington banks.
In the 1970s, Mr Richards and his father Lloyd put in about 30 kilometres of Whittington Interceptor Sustainable Agriculture Land Treatment (WISALT) banks across their property.
The idea was the banks would arrest lateral water flow on the soil surface and subsurface to prevent run-off, salt degradation and water erosion.
The principal being that the longer the water infiltrated the soil and was held where it fell, rather than moving downslope, the more beneficial it would be.
This water conservation is similar to that achieved by modern no-tillage farming using a deep banding system (DBS) and GPS.
In effect, Mr Richards said every slot in the ground now was a 'mini Harry bank'.
"We are able to harvest more water in the paddock using no-till than we ever have before," Mr Richards said.
He said the Whittington banks had done their job in improving the soil, stopping waterlogging and reducing salt for 40 years.
"There was an improvement in growing crops on land that could only be used for saltbush in the past," he said.
Then in 2010, Mr Richards started grading the Harry banks out as he and son Matt shifted to more of a controlled traffic farming (CTF) system.
"This was to accommodate up-and-back crop establishment on longer, straight lines of up to 2.3 kilometres and beside-row sowing," he said.
"We were being hampered by not being able to do long runs because of the banks.
"They were interfering with our operations and we were questioning whether they were still working for us.
"Longer, straighter lines are now creating more operating efficiencies throughout the year and putting less stress on machines and workers.
"And it means there is no need for auto boom shut-off because spraying is along uninterrupted straight lines.
"The banks have served their purpose."
Mr Richards said since moving to no-till, they used an Ausplow DBS precision seeder on 30 centimetre (12 inch) spacings and every tyne and press wheel on the machine created a furrow which, in effect, was just like a mini 'Harry bank'.
He said they had set the seeder to sow deeper than most other people in the district at 10cm to 13cm (four to five inches) to aerate the soil and promote water harvesting.
"We also retain stubble and have a lime and gypsum remediation program every year to create healthier soils," Mr Richards said.
"The soil is a lot healthier than it was 40 years ago.
"The soil structure is improving and we are seeing more earthworms."
Mr Richards said GPS and RTK guidance had been a game-changer for croppers, making seeding a highly accurate proposition and not disturbing the stubble.
The Richards use a lower seeding rate of 50 kilograms per hectare, cut back from 80kg/ha, because they are confident every seed planted by the DBS machine will germinate and compete with any weeds.
"We have even gone as low as 27kg/ha for barley and it yielded the same as crops sown at 40-45kg/ha."
Mr Richards said their farm had experienced its best three years in a row to 2023 and rainfall had increased.
"But, generally speaking, there is a trend in the region for declining rainfall," he said.
"So we need to conserve all of the moisture that hits the ground.
"Using GPS and auto-steer, we can sow very close to last year's crop without disturbing the stubble.
"This picks up residual water and fertiliser for the next crop."
The Richards have just bought a 250ha block of land, on which they have filled in four dams and taken out the contour banks.
This is in preparation for the farming business to become totally cropping, with no sheep, from 2025.
This year, the Richards are still running 700-head of sheep but uncertainty about the live export trade, a difficulty finding shearers and generally 'noisy' animal activists had eroded their confidence in the long-term viability of having a sheep enterprise.
They will sow their biggest ever crop of 4000ha in 2024.
The program will be made up of GM canola varieties, Jurien lupins, Scepter, Calibre and Rockstar wheat, Maximus and Planet barley, Bannister oats and Wharton field peas.
For the first time, they will sow some vetch to return nitrogen to the soil and remove weeds through grazing.
Mr Richards said one WISALT bank remained on their property - on some sandplain soil - and there were trees all around it.
"This bank is about one kilometre long and has many trees and shrubs," he said.
The WISALT Society (WISALTS) held its annual general meeting last month and decided to make a donation to Murdoch University for digitisation of some of the material held in the Whittington Collection.
WISALTS secretary Pam McGregor said salinity was still an issue in WA and the WISALT system was still a relevant way to help address the problem.
She said Murdoch University had existing material from WISALTS in its agricultural collection and farmers and other interested stakeholders could easily access this online.
"Although the WISALT system is not being used so much today because of the desire to run long, straight lines of crop, it is still interesting to look back on the Harry banks and how successful they were for many years," Ms McGregor said.
"Now it is usual practice to fine-tune the Harry bank system if farmers are looking to install them."
WISALTS re-elected Jim Sorgiovanni as president, Jock Rogers as vice president, Philip Surtees as junior vice president and Neville Marsh as treasurer.
