GusS
-Gus here, recently returned to family’s mixed farm after working on other properties across Australia.

Disc or tyne?

Do you use tyne or disc seeders when sowing into retained stubbles? We are retaining more and more of our winter stubbles and looking at improving our sowing gear. Any recommendations or tips for the either system?

2142 days ago

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Hi Gus and a good question that i get asked pretty regularly with NNSW/SQLD agronomy clients. Short answer is there is no one size fits all. Sometimes the disc option is best where summer planting and heat/wind can dry away quickly from the seed and also more precision options (depth/seed firmers/etc). Tyne is used more often with our clients, many who have adopted cover-cropping and strong focus on cover. If you have the luxury to have both then that's the ideal scenario.

Glad to see your focus on cover. When we lose 250-300mm of rainfall to evaporation and runoff each summer fallow, cover is vital. For every 1mm of stored moisture, we aim to turn that into $5/ha of grain. Crop sequences, crop/variety choices, etc all change when the focus is on capturing more rainfall and turning around the continual decline in soil organic matter under current farming 'best practices'.

Good luck.

Ian Moss - agronomy director at Farm Agronomy & Resource Management (FARM)

Ian@FARM
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2055 days ago

Thanks so much Ian. Appreciate it.
GusS | 2040 days

G’day Gus, I’ve had a bit of a look at this but am no expert to say the least. Both a tyne with a culter and disc are great at going through stubbles to help incorporate. I found that a disc was great for soil/seed placement, minimum disturbance and quicker sowing speed but limited in our heavy clay soil conditions when too dry or too wet, unable to incorporate pre-emergent chemicals or deep band fertiliser. We went with a Tyne due being more flexible in our mixed cropping but would look at getting a disc machine in for specific crops. I would just consider your soil types, weed burden on farm and crops grown.

Hope this helps a little

Hughie
-Mixed farming manager of a family farm from Deniliquin, have some knowledge but master of none. Keen to learn and share.

2141 days ago

Thanks a heap Hugh, that is really helpful, particularly as you've used both. Appreciate it mate.
GusS | 2141 days

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