IN FOCUS FARMING SPRING 2021
ON TIME, EVERY TIME Adam Stace, Forbes, NSW
DIVERSITY & INNOVATION INAG Peter Nixon, Forbes Machinery, NSW INVESTMENT IN SOIL AMELIORATION – ACIDIC SOILS Baker Ag Advantage
YOUR FARM, OUR FOCUS
Speedtiller Powerflex®. Incorporating stubble & preparing seedbeds in Ungarie
AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURE ABOVE & BEYOND
With boomer crops, commodity pricing at an all-time high, and favourable weather conditions, Australian ag is set for a record- breaking season.The 2021 winter crop was forecast to reach a record high production level of 23.2 million hectares nationally, up by 2% from 2020’s record highs! Though some areas have experienced tougher seasonal conditions, yield prospects in most cropping regions through New South Wales, Western Australia and much of Queensland are very favourable. Winter rainfall was above average in most cropping regions throughout the eastern states and South Australia, and subsoil moisture remains above average in many areas, supporting crop growth as we head into Spring. The Bureau of Meteorology predicts that the next three months will continue to be
wetter than usual, and minimum temperatures are expected to be well above the median in most regions, decreasing the risk of frost. However, the re-emergence of mice populations in the eastern states is causing increased costs of production for some producers, as they are having to implement further control measures to minimise damage to the winter crop planting and development. As a result of the above average rainfall received across most regions, boomer crops will bring challenges with massive stubble residue loads and high growth of summer weeds. Another issue needing to be addressed this year will be utilising strategic tillage to clean up paddocks that have rutted bog holes and washout as a result of the wet winter. Managing these
issues is key, and here at K-Line Ag we are continually reviewing and developing our machines to offer the most efficient and suitable machinery options to help farmers overcome these types of challenges. Our most popular product, the Speedtiller®, will cut and incorporate stubble and weeds while renovating your soil and preparing a level seedbed. Supported by strong global prices and a growing demand for Australian export, wheat prices are expected to remain high throughout the next 12 months. Overall, with record-high commodity prices and increasingly favourable conditions, the ag industry remains stronger than ever as we move towards the end of the year. On behalf of the entire K-Line Ag team, I would like to extend my gratitude to all our customers
working the land and wish you all the very best for this season. I would also like to personally welcome Glenn Soper as General Manager of CNH Industrial Seeding & Tillage brands. We at K-Line Ag will be looking forward to working with and under Glenn’s guidance moving forward. He brings with him a wealth of experience in both the Agricultural and Automotive spaces, and will be an asset to the K-Line Ag, Flexi- Coil & Horwood Bagshaw brands moving into the future. Bill Larsen National Sales & Marketing Director K-Line Agriculture
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Adam Stace, pictured with his 4m K-Line Ag Speedtiller®
ON TIME, EVERY TIME Adam Stace, Forbes, NSW
Business progressed rapidly over the next two years, and in 2015 he left Rebel Equipment and started contracting full-time in the local area. His business is very busy throughout most of the year, with the hay season starting in early October through to March, and the sowing season progressing from March through to June. July & August are quieter months, however, especially when it rains a lot. The major challenges Adam faces in contracting is the arrival of new contractors and building and upholding a strong reputation. Time management and reliability are key to customer satisfaction, and though the weather can be unpredictable, Adam aims to arrive and complete the job on time, every time. “The key to success in contracting is being on time and reliable. Be honest with your customers. If you can’t do it, say no. You only take on what
Adam Stace, owner of Adam Stace Hay Contracting, works with his father and brother contracting out a wide range of farming equipment to farmers in the area. Located on the edge of Forbes, the business has been running full time since 2015. A qualified welder by trade, Adam left school in year 10 and started work with Rebel Equipment, a local manufacturer specialising in hay moving equipment. Working there for over 5 years, building accumulators and grabs for the back of balers, Adam developed a passion for working with hay. This led him to start contracting in 2013. With a brand-new New Holland T6010, a 3m 3PL K-Line Ag Speedtiller® and a New Holland Super417 Baler fitted with a Rebel accumulator, Adam began contracting hay baling, sowing & plowing after hours and over the weekends.
you can handle. Of course, there’s always going to be times when you could do with more work, but you have to make sure you can do all the work that you take on. Don’t let the farmers down.” Contracting has allowed Adam and his family to acquire a range of reliable machinery, which they utilise on their own 3 farms, a total of 1200 acres. “It’s always good, contracting. We get to see a lot of different styles of farming, and it helps to pay off gear so we can manage our own farms better. We would never have had that newer equipment without the contracting.” With a total of 4 tractors, and a combination of new balers, new rakes, and a Speedtiller®, Adam’s business is well equipped to handle most contracting requests. “In contracting, it pays to have the latest model machinery that’s
reliable. There’s nothing worse than having to ring your client and say our machines are broken down, we can’t finish the job. By turning over our machinery regularly, I’m confident that it’s new and reliable. Under warranty, any issues get repaired quickly, and the Head Mechanic at our local dealership is very good with us. It really comes down to time and management, having faith in your machines not breaking down, and turning up on time.” Adam currently owns a 4m K-Line Ag Speedtiller®, using it mainly for prepping seed beds for a variety of crops, including oats, barley, wheat, and lucerne. “I bought my current machine just before the start of the drought, as a replacement for my original 3m. It leaves a beautiful seedbed, and it’s a really good tool for one pass
rakes are imported from America. He is also very loyal to the New Holland brand, and currently owns 4 New Holland tractors, 2 little New Holland Balers and a New Holland Round Baler. “I purchase all my machinery through the local dealer, Forbes Machinery Centre. It’s late model machinery that I can rely on. It’s a bonus in that way, the extra income from contracting keeping the town going, being able to support local dealers.” The business, Adam Stace Hay Contracting, has enabled Adam and his family to get ahead with their own farm operations. And aside from that, he loves it, being able to work with farmers and the weather and all the rest of it.
operation. It also does a great job of stubble mulching, which I need because my sowing rig has only got narrow spacings, so I need the stubble chopped up fine.” “I can ultimately do one pass with the Speedtiller® to achieve great stubble incorporation and seedbed prep, getting better trashflow. Not only is it a great multi-purpose, one-pass machine, but it is lower cost for the farmers, as I don’t have to pass over 2 or 3 times to get it worked and chopped up. Years ago when they had offsets and scarifiers they had to go over the paddock three or four times to bust them down and waste time. I can cover more country faster with the Speedtiller® because I only have to go over it once, so it’s definitely a lower cost to farmers.” As a lover for American made products, Adam’s Twinstar hay
COME AND JOIN OUR TEAM AT K-LINE AG
HIRING NOW! • Assembly Operator • Welders / Fabricators
For more information or to apply for these positions, visit k-line.net.au/careers/
DIVERSITY & INNOVATION IN AG
Peter Nixon Branch Manager & Sales Rep, Forbes Machinery Centre, NSW Peter Nixon is the Branch Manager at Forbes Machinery Centre in Forbes, NSW. He also works as part of the Sales team, and has done since 2014. Prior to his employment at Forbes Machinery, he had a lot of experience in the agricultural sector, working for a large broadacre farmer in both Central NSW & Central QLD.
PETE’S TIP If you’re looking to buy a new piece of farm equipment, simply do your homework. Talk to your dealer and get the right information, so that you can get the right machine for your needs.
The area surrounding Forbes supports a diverse range of
farming operations. The Ag sector is currently comprised of dry-land and irrigated cropping, hay/silage making, dairy, horticulture, cotton, beef and wool. Pete’s favourite part of his work as a dealer is being able to connect the right piece of equipment with the right customer and giving the best possible service to his clients. The diversity of the Forbes District ensures there is always a wide variety of customer requirements and different projects for Pete’s team to work on. Best of all, as agriculture is always evolving, bringing new farming techniques and new and evolved products into the market, there is never a dull moment for Pete. “K-Line Ag is a great brand, with a robust and well-designed product with service support to match it. Their product is always evolving to keep up with the ever-changing conditions and developments in the agricultural sector. I believe this innovation is key to staying on top of the market.
K-Line Ag have also developed equipment that suits our entire core customer base, whether they be a small acre farmer, a mixed crop and livestock farmer, or a broadacre farmer. The diversity of the range and their great customer service means we can sell the K-Line Ag products with absolute confidence. I really can’t speak highly enough of the team.
They have a real ‘let’s get it done approach’ which means we can move quickly and get the job done. K-Line Ag has also been a brand that has helped me get down some driveways that we may not typically gone down before. This has led me to make further sales of not just K-Line Ag gear, but other equipment also. As a
result of this, during my time at Forbes Machinery Centre I’ve been able to develop some great relationships with our customer base and brought more repeat business to FMC. The current challenge farmers are facing right now in the Forbes district is the growth of chemical resistant weeds. High levels of trash/ residue from this harvest will also
be an issue, and there is a shortness of supply of key knockdown herbicides. However, there is also a lot of great opportunities in ag at the moment. Farming in the Central West is in a really good place, and there have been a lot of farmers investing in their business lately, whether it be with new equipment, sheds, center pivots, silos, or even additional land.
We’re currently seeing a lot of farmers investing relative to the scale of their enterprise.”
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0.49 %* FINANCE AVAILABLE NOW
A GREAT YEAR JUST GOT EVEN BETTER
Maximum Precision for Maximum Yields CONTACT YOUR LOCAL DEALER TODAY
Baker Ag Advantage INVESTMENT IN SOIL AMELIORATION – ACIDIC SOILS
When choosing to undertake a lime program on your farm, it is important to consider a few anomalies in your paddock to ensure the maximum return for your investment. Whilst blanket approaches, for example of 2.5t/Ha when coming out of pasture, have worked really well in the past, changes in crop and pasture agronomy and farming techniques have led to our soils having variable pH or concentration of acidic soil throughout the top 15cm. Soil testing techniques in the past have focused on a 0-10cm test to give producers an idea of pH in this area, along with key nutrients such as Phosphorus, nitrogen and sulphur.
Agronomists and producers can then couple this with a deep nitrogen test (10–80cm) to gain insights into what nitrogen budgets and requirements may look like for the coming grain growing season. With the advent of minimum and zero tillage and drought (creating the reluctancy to cultivate), tillage (especially at depth) has become a rarity. Findings from many research organisation’s have shown that the advent of our farming systems has led to changes in how the soil pH varies in centimetre increments throughout the top 15cm of soil. Work by Farmlink and CSIRO have concluded that looking at the top 10cm for pH management is no longer suitable. The CSIRO
farming systems project at Greenthorpe (shown in Fig.1) highlights the variability in pH at depths down to 20cm.
The difference between the black line (pH in March 2017) versus the red line (pH in February 2020) shows an increase in pH for the 0–10cm component.
This change in pH occurred through “traditional” soil acidity management. Soil test, blanket rate of lime and incorporate using offset discs. However, a wet 2020 combined with an acid soil sensitive crop (Faba beans) highlighted areas that were underperforming. These differences were the result of low pH (4.4 CaCl) and high Exchangeable Aluminum, resulting in rhizobia death and plants underperforming. Further testing showed that the average pH for 0–10cm was 5.7 CaCl, however at 10–15cm the pH was 4.4 CaCl. Targeted lime application was undertaken following 2020 harvest and lime was incorporated to a depth of 25cm – Yes some horse power was required! Incremental depth testing (0-5, 5-10, 10-15cm) on 2ha grids across the paddock is a more thorough way to improve the accuracy of results therefore leading to targeted precision in your amelioration projects. This then allows the ability to spread the required amounts variably and cost effectively based on results. The testing of PH, CEC and organic matter % to determine the rates of lime to apply and incorporate to these depths can be done strategically with the most precise implement. The timing of this testing can be completed up to a season out from amelioration, with the amelioration occurring at the termination of a pasture phase, post legume or canola. This reduces the impact on minimal/ zero till stubble retained systems.
High resolution aerial imagery/ NDVI imagery can be used to identify and target potential acidic soil areas of concern (when growing sensitive crops). Ground truthing this imagery, in conjunction with yield mapping to fine tune testing areas and zone creation. Another important consideration for pH management is the increase of availability of key nutrients when the soil is at a neutral pH (5.5). Acid soils limit the accessibility of key nutrients to the crop, as seen in Fig. 2. The ability for the crop to access these nutrients is paramount for overall crop health and potential, with improvements to the critical root zone (0-15cm) necessary through the above listed testing and amelioration strategies.
We hope that everyone has enjoyed a prosperous season in 2021 and enjoy a fruitful harvest across the livestock and cropping industries. If you’d like to get in touch with the team at Baker Ag Advantage, please give us a call or find us on Facebook or Twitter. All the best for the season ahead.
Chris, Matt & Dan Chris: 0428 635 556 Matt: 0418 169 864 Dan: 0467 076 092
2-6 Union Street, Forbes NSW 2871
WHAT’S NEW WITH US?
Product Updates All K-Line Ag seeding attachments including Q55 Coulters, Spring Tine Harrows, K2000 Modular Rotary Harrows & K44 Poly Tipped Harrows will be painted CNH Industrial grey going forward. This will ensure that they are a better suited to co-ordinate with all K-Line Ag, Flexi-Coil, & Horwood Bagshaw seeding equipment, as well as any other non-CNH Industrial brands.
Australian Made Proudly designed and manufactured in Australia for Australian conditions, the K-Line Ag machines are now officially recognized with an exciting Australian Made license! At K-Line Ag our growing team is striving to meet the needs of the local Aussie farmers and growers. With product improvements, an expanding team and ongoing project developments, we’re set to give you the best of farming machinery and service this season. Check out our latest news below!
This logo is widely recognized as a trusted mark of aussie authenticity, and we’re proud to manufacture and deliver quality Australian products to our customers.
Keep an eye out for our exciting new branding!
Welcome to the team!
Brett Duggan – Brett is the newest member of our Seeding & Tillage team! Based in Cowra, Brett is responsible for EHS governance. He creates, maintains & improves EHS culture and identifies the training needs and requirements for staff.
Glenn Soper – Glenn is joining the CNH Industrial Seeding & Tillage team from Mannum, SA, as the new General Manager for K-Line Ag and our sister brands, Flexi- Coil & Horwood Bagshaw. Please join us in welcoming Glenn to his new position!
Sara Sanlorenzo – Sara joins us from CNH Industrial’s AMS team.We’re excited to see what she can bring to K-Line Ag as the new Marketing Manager for CNH Industrial’s Seeding & Tillage brands!
Andrew Kissel – Andrew joins our CNH Industrial Seeding & Tillage team as our first ever Product Specialist! Based remotely, he will be working closely with the K-Line Ag sales & marketing teams to support our customers and dealers.
Field Days Though much of the country has been in lockdown, several field days were able to go ahead in WA & SA over the last 3 months. K-Line Ag machines were displayed alongside products from Flexi-Coil & Horwood Bagshaw brands at the following events:
Mingenew Midwest Expo, WA,
Dowerin Machinery Field Days, WA,
Don’t Wet the Bed. Managing waterlogged seedbeds With steady rains we’ve received throughout the last few months, most farmers were left with rutted tracks and waterlogged seedbeds. Check out the most effective ways to manage your waterlogged soil on our new blog: https://k-line.net.au/news/ managing-waterlogged-seedbeds
Newdegate Machinery Field Days, WA,
Yorke Peninsula Field Days, SA,
Strategic tillage a winner in no-till cropping
K-Line Ag is a leader in the tillage and seeding market. With a strong reputation for durability and quality of design, we are committed to engineering and manufacturing high-performing farm machinery in Australia for Australian conditions. FINANCE NOW AVAILABLE ON ALL K-LINE AG MACHINES
Will strategic tillage cause long-term damage to the soil structure that no-till has sought to improve? Several studies and long-term trials have shown that though there are a few short-term costs from strategic tillage, the practice can be employed as a useful strategy to manage the limitations of no-till systems. Using the right machine at the right time can enable you to overcome chemical-resistant weeds, soil acidity build-up and deficient nitrogen levels, amongst other things. Learn more at: https://k-line.net.au/news/strategic-tillage-a-winner-in-no-till-cropping
*Terms and conditions apply, see website for details.
STAFF SPOTLIGHT Glenn Soper General Manager – Seeding & Tillage
in Australia for Australian conditions, and are ideal for local farmers wanting to till.”
Glenn Soper is the new General Manager of CNH Industrial’s Seeding & Tillage brand. Though he is currently based in Mannum, Glenn directly oversees all three brands; K-Line Ag, Horwood Bagshaw & Flexi-Coil. Since moving to Mannum, Glenn starts his days on the production line, checking that the staff are happy and that work is flowing. He has regular online meetings with his remote team, aiming to get traction on various projects. Much of his day is spent checking in with staff members and ensuring that they are similarly getting traction on their own projects, and that everyone is aligned with the commercial business goals. “I think the K-Line Ag products are amazing innovative machines, built to high standards with high quality welds. They’re robust products, built
The thing that Glenn enjoys most about his new role is the variety of work. “I love that no two days are the same. I get to work with wonderful and passionate people and every day is a school day. I have a steep learning curve at this time, and I am soaking up the new information with glee. I am however, a little impatient, wanting projects to evolve quicker. I need to modulate and accept that change isn’t easy and will take time.” In his spare time, Glenn loves exploring new places on foot. He also enjoys watching the Wallabies, and is always happy to see them win.
Amazing deals on Flexi-Coil right NOW! Applicable across a huge range of machines
*Conditions Apply
Low rate from0.49%* finance across their entire seeding and tillage range. Extra discounts available on available inventory.
CLICK HERE to keep up to date with finance offers, new machines and machine updates
DEALER NETWORK K-Line Ag products are sold under the K-Line Ag name in Australia and New Zealand through our existing network of Case IH, New Holland and selected independent dealers. If unsure who your nearest dealer is call us on 1800 194 131
Ph: 1800 194 131 +61 (2) 6340 0400 www.k-line.net.au
A Division of CNH Industrial
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