Dillon and the videography team from Broadacre Contracting are up at Wycheproof, having a yarn with a spreading contractor out in the paddock that just got a much-wanted 20mm of rain.
Wycheproof is a rural town in Victoria’s wheat belt, in the Buloke Shire, and funnily enough it is most famous for hosting Mt Wycheproof, known as the world’s smallest registered mountain, rising just 43 metres above the surrounding plains.
Now that is the type of mountain you would catch me hiking.
Wycheproof is in the heart of the Wimmera and the boys are here catching up with Jayden and the team from Customized Spreading.
In this episode, Dillon yarns with Jayden and the Customized Spreading team to chat about their 13-year journey in the spreading game, how their knowledge and gear has got them out to spreading 48m swaths with variable rate capability, and how they have integrated full transparency with growers through John Deere Ops Centre and Crop Opti.
We had a proper yarn about gear, precision ag, and what it takes to do a professional spreading job across the Wimmera, the Mallee and down south through to Geelong and Bellarine.
If you are a grower looking for spreading contractors who run quality gear, precision tools and share full transparency, or if you need any gear to hire, Google Broadacre Contracting.
Customized Spreading Team Jump Into a Yarn With Dillon From Broadacre to Tell the Story of Precision and 48m Spread
Customized Spreading has been running for around 13 years, based out of Buckley, VIC, just near Winchelsea.
Customized Spreading runs a split operation, with tractors and trailed spreaders working through the Wimmera and Mallee, and truck spreaders working down south around the Bellarine and Geelong areas in the smaller pasture and horticultural country.
That split allows the team to service broadacre cropping country, pasture and horticultural type country, which are three very different operations with three very different personalities.
Up north in the Wimmera and Mallee, Customized Spreading focuses on gypsum, lime, urea, single super and SOA.
Down south, the truck spreaders are more focused on pasture and horticultural type work, where single super is becoming more popular as a cost-effective phosphorus option.
The team’s business motto is Refresh, Renew, Revive, and that is the action plan they follow when they come through the gate.
Start with gypsum to refresh, renew it, and then revive it from there.
Dillon and Broadacre Contracting’s interpretation
Having a split operation between tractors up north and truck spreaders down south is a smart way to do it.
The reason is that they are serving three different clients with the same service, and each complements the others.
A cracker example is a client who has broadacre land and may require a truck spreader one year because it is too wet for tractors.
This allows the Customized Spreading team to offer compromises when things are a bit all over the shop, which is a huge value-add for growers.
The Refresh, Renew, Revive motto is not just a catchy phrase; it is an actual action plan.
That tells you the team has thought about how they deliver service, not just what they deliver.
That is the kind of approach that sets contractors apart in a competitive market, and we run that style ourselves.
The Broadacre Contracting motto is: let us help you grow.
These things are not just letters and words, they have meanings and for a good reason.
Boys and Their Toys: John Deere Tractors, Bredal Spreaders Up North and Truck Spreaders Down South
The Customized Spreading fleet is set up to handle big rates per hectare and variable rate jobs, which is where a lot of their work comes from.
They are running brand new John Deere 8Rs and Bredal K135XESC spreaders.
The Bredal spreaders have the capacity to carry 14 to 15 tonnes of urea and around 23+ tonnes of gypsum and lime, which is critical for heavy-rate jobs and long paddocks.
Those are the kinds of jobs that linkage spreaders simply cannot handle.
Customized Spreading fleet setup
John Deere 8R tractors
Bredal K135XESC spreaders
14 to 15 tonnes of urea capacity
23+ tonnes of gypsum and lime capacity
Variable rate spreading
6×6 truck spreaders down south
A cracker of an example: two years ago, Harry was on a job running a variable rate up to 400 to 450kg/ha of urea on one pass.
They were getting up and back, and that was about it.
That farm called Customized Spreading in specifically because linkage spreaders could not get the capacity, let alone the swath throw, to do the job.
Down south, the 6×6 truck spreaders are doing the work on pasture country around Bellarine and Geelong.
Dillon and Broadacre Contracting’s interpretation
This is where Customized Spreading really separates themselves.
Big capacity, big rates, big metres, that is the niche.
A lot of growers do not realise that a linkage spreader has limitations on rate and metres.
When you are going variable rate at 400 to 450kg/ha, you need the carrying capacity, and you need a machine that can throw the product evenly at wide metres.
Customized Spreading have built their business around solving that exact problem for growers, and that is a smart play.
Customized Spreading’s Capability: 48m Swath on Urea and 24m on Gypsum and Lime
Let us talk tonnes, metres and precision, because this is where the business shines.
On urea, the Bredal spreaders are getting up to 48 metres.
The other day the team was throwing over 50 metres, and that is the capability of the K135XESC wing spreaders.
They do not often do that and they tame it down, but that is the max precision capability.
They can dial these animals in through cab settings and are generally running a minimum of 32m on urea.
Single super throws easy, and the team has no worries getting wide metres out of it.
SOA is similar, throws easy and they do a lot of SOA, often in blends with urea rather than straight nowadays.
Gypsum and lime get spread up to 24 metres, depending on the quality of the product.
Some product can be powdery, so for controlled traffic jobs they come back to 12 metres to maintain the quality of the job over chasing wide metres.
At Customized Spreading, they also do spread testing across paddocks to get a real read on what the machine is doing, including putting trays out when needed.
Spreading capability from the yarn
Urea Up to 48m swath
Max capability Over 50m in the right setup
Minimum urea width Generally 32m
Gypsum and lime Up to 24m depending on quality
Controlled traffic jobs May come back to 12m for quality
Quality checks Spread trays when needed
Dillon and Broadacre Contracting’s interpretation
48 metres on urea is a serious throw, and doing it with precision is pretty unreal.
We all know most spreaders get out to 36 metres but struggle to do it cleanly.
This is the kind of capability that separates spreading contractors.
But the bigger thing here is the quality of job over chasing metres, and that is exactly the right approach.
You can have all the capability in the world to throw fert wide, but if it is not landing where it should, you are not actually doing the job.
So props to the Customized Spreading team for putting the job quality first.
Quality and precision.
As I say, do a good job and everything else will just follow.
In other words, let your work speak for itself.
What Does Precision Ag Look Like at Customized Spreading? Shaker Boxes, Crush Tests and Spread Trays
This is where Customized Spreading really separates themselves from the old-school “throw it in and hope for the best” approach.
Every machine in the fleet runs a shaker box.
The operator puts a sample of urea in the shaker box and shakes it, and it brings up a graph showing the quality of the product.
There is also a crush test device.
The operator puts urea on a hard surface and pushes the device down to crush it, giving a guide on its crushing point and at what point it will fragment when it hits the spreader spinner.
That tells the operator how fast to run the Bredal spreader spinners, so the product does not pulverise and lose its metre.
Combined with spread trays out in the paddock, the team gets a complete picture of what the machine is doing before they commit to the job.
Precision checks used by Customized Spreading
Shaker boxes
Crush tests
Spread trays
Product quality checks
Spinner speed decisions
Real paddock testing
Dillon and Broadacre Contracting’s interpretation
This is gold.
Most people, including myself, would not even know shaker boxes and crush testers exist, let alone that a spreading contractor would be running them on every machine.
We often see fertiliser coming into the country that is too wet or just rubbish, so in theory everyone should nearly be doing this each time they change silo and so on.
After all, growers spend a heap of cash getting this stuff.
What is the point of having it if the job is not getting done properly?
This is the difference between guessing and knowing.
If you do not know the quality of the product, you do not know what metres you can get.
If you do not know what metres you can get, you are either overspreading and destroying the paddock with zebra stripes, or underspreading and the grower is getting ripped off on coverage.
The Customized Spreading approach takes all of that out of the equation.
They know before they go.
That is precision ag at its finest, and I have not come across anyone else doing this yet.
It’s All About Communication at Customized Spreading: John Deere Ops Centre and Crop Opti
At Customized Spreading, the team runs full integration with growers through John Deere Ops Centre, so the grower can see live data, fuel rates, location and what has been done in the paddock at any moment.
But where it gets really interesting is the integration and collaboration with Crop Opti.
Crop Opti is a third party that handles much of the variable-rate mapping for growers and is based out of Horsham, VIC.
The setup is a three-way party: Customized Spreading, the grower and Crop Opti, all logged into JD Ops Centre, watching the work in the paddock in real time.
The three-way live connection
Grower
Crop Opti for agronomy and supply
Customized Spreading for application
If the rain forecast changes mid-job, Crop Opti can send a new map through and adjust the rates on the fly.
Harry has been mid-paddock spreading, got a call to say a new map has been sent, and the rates are adjusted because the rain has either backed off or come up.
At the same time, Crop Opti is blending product at their plant in Horsham, ready for the next paddock.
All three parties are seeing the same data, all in real time.
On top of that, when Customized Spreading rolls into a paddock and the grower is on GreenStar or John Deere, the headings, boundaries and maps just dial straight in.
The tractors are on RTK, so there is no manual punching in of headings, no mate texting you a heading that might be wrong and no guesswork.
For more context, John Deere Operations Center is designed to help manage operations and access farm information across web, tablet and phone, while Crop Opti provides agronomy, precision soil mapping and plant nutrition services around Horsham and surrounding agricultural regions.
Dillon and Broadacre Contracting’s interpretation
This is the future of contracting, and Customized Spreading are already living it.
The three-way relationship between grower, agro and contractor eliminates chain-of-command issues where instructions get lost in word-of-mouth.
How often do contractors end up in the wrong paddock or running the wrong rate because something got missed in a phone call?
This setup eliminates that almost entirely.
That is complete transparency, complete communication, and at Broadacre Contracting we say it all the time: communication is the foundation of every good contractor-grower relationship.
Compatibility of systems is also becoming a deciding factor in who gets the job.
If your tractor is on RTK John Deere and the grower is on GreenStar, you are plug and play.
No headaches, no errors, no mishaps.
Worth thinking about long and hard for any contractor upgrading gear or grower engaging a contractor.
If you are a grower engaging a contractor with this kind of setup, your trust level should be through the roof.
How Do You Get Customized Spreading on Your Programme?
You can view the team’s equipment on the Broadacre Contracting website, or post a job through tenders if you want to send out an instant alert looking for a contractor.
Why We Filmed This Episode With Customized Spreading
At Broadacre Contracting, we are wanting to become an advocate and trusted partner to the agriculture sector.
We want to showcase every contractor possible, from small to large scale, but who we work alongside must align with our core values of Respect, Reliability and Responsibility.
Respect
Reliability
Responsibility
Customized Spreading ticked those boxes, and that is why we wanted to share the team’s story on Talking Gear Tuesday.
This is what the directory is all about, connecting growers with verified contractors who do the right thing by each other.
Want to Feature on Talking Gear Tuesday?
If you are a contractor running quality gear and want to feature on Talking Gear Tuesday, or you want to get verified on the Broadacre Contracting directory, give Dillon a call.
Helpful Customized Spreading and Precision Ag Resources
These resources may help growers and contractors watch the episode, view the listing, post a job or better understand the precision ag tools discussed in this yarn.
Need a Spreading Contractor or Want to Get Verified?
If you are a grower looking for spreading contractors, or a contractor wanting to showcase your gear and build trust, Broadacre Contracting gives you a clearer place to start.
View Customized Spreading, post a tender, or watch more Talking Gear Tuesday episodes to see how we showcase the people behind the gear.
Customized Spreading is a spreading contractor business based out of Buckley, VIC, near Winchelsea. The team services broadacre, pasture and horticultural country with tractor and trailed spreaders up north and truck spreaders down south.
Where does Customized Spreading work?
Customized Spreading works through the Wimmera and Mallee with tractors and trailed spreaders, and around Bellarine and Geelong with truck spreaders for pasture and horticultural country.
What gear does Customized Spreading run?
The team runs John Deere 8R tractors, Bredal K135XESC spreaders and 6×6 truck spreaders, giving them the capacity to handle urea, gypsum, lime, single super, SOA and variable rate jobs.
Can Customized Spreading spread urea at 48 metres?
In the episode, the team explains that their Bredal spreaders can get up to 48 metres on urea, with the ability to throw over 50 metres in the right setup, although they focus on quality and precision over simply chasing metres.
What is variable rate spreading?
Variable rate spreading adjusts the application rate across different parts of the paddock based on maps, agronomy and paddock requirements, rather than applying one flat rate everywhere.
How does Customized Spreading use John Deere Ops Centre and Crop Opti?
The team uses John Deere Ops Centre and Crop Opti to create a three-way live connection between the grower, agronomy/supply and the spreading contractor, helping with data, maps, rate changes and real-time communication.
How do I find spreading contractors through Broadacre Contracting?
You can view contractor listings, post a tender or browse Talking Gear Tuesday episodes through Broadacre Contracting to connect with verified contractors across agriculture.
