Freshly “reefinated” land showing the crushed limestone rock on the Murdoch’s Warooka farm on South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula
SHALLOW limestone is a strong feature of the country on South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula and limits farming potential in the region, however an increasing number of growers have found a machine to renovate the land in recent times.
Southern YP farming brothers Hugh and George Murdoch have achieved lentil yield gains of nearly 70 per cent in areas where their land has been worked well, as well as significant yield increases in wheat.
They are sixth generation farmers near Warooka and grow wheat, lentils and barley, although this season the 10pc normally devoted to barley was replaced with canola for the first time.
The property features calcareous sandy patches, clay loams and significant areas of the shallow limestone.
“A lot of our paddocks have 10-20pc of shallow sheeting limestone that didn’t produce a whole lot, including rocky outcrops which we were sowing around,” Hugh said.
He said the Rocks Gone Reefinator machine had been used by many farmers in the district and they had been kind enough to offer advice and share their experiences, which guided the Murdoch’s decision to invest in their own machine.
The 3-metre wide H4 Reefinator comprises a levelling blade, four front row and five rear row hydraulic tines, and a following ribbed drum, all weighing 28t when filled with water and digging up to 600 millimetres deep. It works much like a cheese grater, removing manageable pieces of rock as multiple passes are completed.
“The machine is built to a very high standard and is able to handle the task at hand,” Hugh said.
“We believe reefinating is very worthwhile, as we have been able to achieve significant yield gains, improve our field efficiency and increase the value of our land.
“We have found that as our rock is bouldery and very hard, it doesn’t break-up into gravel. This has meant that as we have gained experience with the machine, our renovation process has evolved. We are now also rock picking all the areas we reefinate with a Elho Scorpio Rock Picker, which removes
the stones that are larger than a golf ball. This is a time-consuming process, but, once complete, ensures the finished area is suitable for growing lentils.
“Our focus has been on un-arable areas which we previously had not cropped, but now these are complete. We are beginning to renovate shallow, yield limiting areas across the farm.”
The latest H4 Reefinator machines also offer automatic depth and slip control technology, which allows easier operation and helps relieve the demands on tractors.
Suitable for ISOBUS and GPS-integrated tractors, the automatic Rocks Gone Depth Master system calculates speed over ground and tractor load or wheel slip to adjust machine depth up to 50 times per second, as well as the level of its blade. In conjunction with GPS guidance systems, it also can produce depth maps of worked areas, helping to limit any extra passes to specific areas.
The Murdochs pull their H4 Reefinator at six to nine kilometres per hour with a 615-horsepower New Holland T9615 tractor set on dual wheels.
“We’ve completed our fourth summer with the machine and done about 1800 hours,” Hugh said.
“Fortunately, we have only had to do minor repairs so far, but it is very hard on the tyres. So we are definitely interested in the automation technology – it sounds really good.
“Depending on how hard and dense the limestone is, we change a set of points every six to 30 hours. The leading edges last quite a while. Following Rocks Gone’s advice, we purchased a second set with the machine, which allows us to update the spare, hard-faced parts if necessary.”
He said the H4 Reefinator had proven to be a versatile machine, also completing work with its grader blade for levelling old fence lines on the family’s property.
Media information: Rohan Howatson, Howatson PR Communications, on 0407 428 459.