Pictured with the family’s Rocks Gone H4 Reefinator, Lachie Ayers, Lake Varley, says it has been a “total turnaround” for some of their country after using the machine. “It’s the only machine worth buying for this work and I’m just so impressed with the way it’s built – you don’t need to put a spanner on it.” He says they have since added automation to the H4 Reefinator “and that puts a smile on your face using that”.
LAKES grower Lachie Ayers has praised a “total turnaround” in farm production over rocky land on the family’s properties in the region and he can’t believe he has not had to lay a spanner on the machine responsible for it.
‘Ayers Farms’ comprises several properties from Lake Varley through to Cascade in WA’s south-east, where the family operates a continuous cropping program of wheat, barley and canola.
Lachie described much of the land in Varley as “ant hill country” with grevillea loams and native pine soils, but also with plenty of laterite gravel.
“We have a lot of orange gravel coming out of the top and all the airseeder tynes can do is scratch marks in it,” Lachie said.
After early contracting work with the Rocks Gone H4 Reefinator rock crushing machine in the gravel country, the Ayers invested in their own machine and have been impressed with the results.
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 28.5 tonnes when filled with water and digging up to 600 millimetres deep.
“In our first year in January 2024, we ‘reefinated’ almost an entire farm and sowed it to Hunter GM canola and it averaged 2 tonnes per hectare. It was very consistent across the farm,” Lachie said.
“The year before that, lupins there averaged 750 kilograms/ha and they went from 500kg/ha up to 2t/ha – it was so variable.
“On that farm last season, where we ‘reefinated’ the whole lot, the wheat looked amazing and was weed-free after pre-emergent and post-emergent sprays. It is a total turnaround.
“The guy we have had driving our header was also commenting on how good the crop was in the ‘reefinated’ spots. He drove the reefinator before sowing last year and patched-out bad areas.”
Lachie said gravel patches were a nightmare for controlling weed seedbanks, however ‘reefinating’ them and then using herbicide-tolerant canola had proved very effective.
He said the family wanted to preserve its seeding equipment, which included a 24-metre Morris C3 Contour drill set up with tynes from the Morris Quantum air drill, and the H4 Reefinator had helped achieve that by creating a pliable soil for the seeder to pass through.
“It’s the only machine worth buying for this work. It’s not cheap, but it’s brilliant.”
“I’m just so impressed with the way they have built the machine, that you don’t need to put a spanner on it.
“The point retaining system is awesome. They are very easy to change and they don’t fall-off.”
Lachie said they also had since added the automatic Rocks Gone Depth Master system to their H4 Reefinator – “and that puts a smile on your face using that”.
Suitable for ISOBUS and GPS-integrated tractors, the 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, helping to ease the demands on operators and tractors.
Lachie said he would also look into utilising the depth maps of worked areas the Depth Master can produce in conjunction with GPS guidance systems, which can help limit any extra passes to specific areas and also confirm the work has been done to a high standard.
He said the family had been using the H4 Reefinator to an average depth of only 200mm and it had been easy to identify the areas that needed “reefinating”.
“Using Google images, I can see where it needs to go. You can see the orange on Google Earth.”
Lachie said “reefinating” was slow going however, and there were several factors to consider with the practice.
“At 10 kilometres per hour, you are only doing 3ha/hr and maximum of 30ha on a big day with one guy doing long runs. We are not doing full paddocks much anymore – instead trying to get bad areas done before GM canola sowing.”
“You can also damage your tractor if used incorrectly and you can end up with a lot of rock picking. Our farm has some granite that’s unbreakable and it’s best to go around it.
“It works better in suitable areas. You can only smash rocks that you can smash with a hammer.
“It can also make the ground a bit dry and fluffy, so no rain afterwards is a little concerning, but if you get 100mm of summer rain you are set. In an ideal world, you would ‘reefinate’ and then leave it as fallow for the season.”
He said there were a lot of options with the machine however, including using it as a deep ripper and also for road construction on the farms.
“It’s also given us the confidence now, where we’re not so concerned about buying a farm that’s full of gravel country.”
On “reefinated” land on one of the Ayers farms, Lachie said the wheat looked amazing and was weed-free after pre-emergent and post-emergent sprays. He says gravel patches are a nightmare for controlling weed seedbanks, however ‘reefinating’ them and then using herbicide-tolerant canola has proved very effective.