Talking Gear Tuesday EP22 catches up with Cal from Newells Contracting near Forbes NSW...
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Need a sowing contractor?
If you need a sowing or seeding contractor around Deniliquin, Finley, Jerilderie, Berrigan, Tocumwal, Mathoura, Moulamein, Barham or anywhere across the southern Riverina, give Dillon at Broadacre Contracting a call on 0439 300 380.
We help growers connect with agricultural contractors running air seeders, disc seeders, tyne machines, planting gear and other broadacre equipment across Australia.
O’Connor Farming is based around Deniliquin NSW and currently has contract sowing capability listed through Broadacre Contracting.
If Luke and the O’Connor crew cannot suit your timing, location or required setup, Broadacre can help get the job in front of other suitable contractors.
We generally say Dillon is available from 6am to 9pm. If something is genuinely urgent and gear needs to get moving, ring.
Righto. Now come back, because Talking Gear Tuesday EP23 is about Australian-built sowing gear, matching machinery and why sometimes keeping things simple really works.
For Talking Gear Tuesday EP23, Dillon Harrison and the Broadacre Contracting film crew are down at Deniliquin NSW with Luke O’Connor from O’Connor Farming.
Or Deni, as basically everyone calls it.
This episode takes us away from headers, cotton pickers and balers for a bit.
We are going sowing.
Luke is running two Horwood Bagshaw seeding setups behind Case Magnum tractors.
One is a 40-foot machine with an 11,000-litre bin.
The other is a 30-foot machine with a 4,000-litre bin.
Both are set up on 11-inch spacings with knife-point tines and press wheels.
And Luke’s reasoning for sticking with them is pretty straightforward.
Simple. Reliable. Strong.
That is basically the theme of this whole yarn.
Matching machinery.
Fewer different parts to keep on the shelf.
Operators who know both setups.
Consistent seed placement.
And gear that Luke believes suits the heavier country around Deniliquin.
We also get into Australian manufacturing, Maximus barley, why two similar sowing rigs make sense and the bigger question of whether more technology is always the answer.
Let us get into it.
Luke’s story is pretty straightforward.
Born in Deni.
Grew up on the family farm.
Went to school in Deni.
Then headed off to university to study agriculture.
After that, he came straight back home.
Eight or nine years later, he is helping run the family operation.
There is something I really like about this story.
Luke went away.
Got educated.
Saw a bit outside the farm.
Then came home.
I reckon there is real value in that.
You come back with new ideas and a bit more perspective, but you already understand the country.
You know the farm.
You know how Dad thinks.
You know where water sits.
You know which paddock turns to concrete.
You know the stuff a textbook cannot teach you.
You get the opportunity to combine education with generations of local knowledge.
It would have been an exciting time coming home knowing there was an opportunity to take more responsibility in the family operation.
And from our yarn with Luke, I reckon O’Connor Farming is in pretty good hands.
Luke walked us through two Horwood Bagshaw seeding rigs used by O’Connor Farming.
According to Luke, the first setup is a 40-foot machine with an 11,000-litre bin.
The second is a 30-foot machine with a 4,000-litre bin.
Both run behind Case Magnum tractors.
Both are on 11-inch row spacing.
Both use knife-point tines with press wheels following behind.
The family has run Horwood equipment for years.
They started with one.
Liked what it did.
Bought another.
And kept the system familiar.
Sometimes the strongest machinery endorsement is buying another one.
Luke’s reasoning is not complicated.
He describes the Horwood gear as strong, straightforward to maintain and reliable in the heavier country they work.
There are not a million completely different components between the two setups.
His operators understand them.
They know the wearing parts.
They know how to set them.
And they know what sort of result to expect.
Simple, reliable and strong.
These bars really suit my kind of thinking.
I am going to give you the Dillon explanation.
Think of the old Nissan Patrol coil-cab ute.
Not because it is literally anything like an air seeder.
But because you look at one and think:
Solid.
Built for work.
Easy enough to understand.
Something you are comfortable taking somewhere rough.
That is the vibe I get from the Horwood setups Luke is running.
But there is something important I learnt while researching this article.
Horwood Bagshaw being built tough does not mean Horwood Bagshaw is anti-technology.
The company’s current air seeder range can run electric-drive metering, ISOBUS controls and variable-rate systems.
So there is a difference between:
simple design philosophy
and
having no technology.
Luke’s particular machines and operating philosophy are about keeping a proven setup familiar and reliable.
That does not mean every Horwood Bagshaw leaving the factory is some completely mechanical dinosaur.
That distinction matters.
One of the strongest points Luke made had almost nothing to do with the Horwood Bagshaw badge itself.
It was about having similar gear.
Similar tractors.
Similar bars.
Similar tines.
Similar knowledge.
Similar spare parts.
That becomes important when two machines need to work together.
Luke said the common setup means they can generally get both machines working at similar depths and producing a comparable result.
This point probably does not get spoken about enough.
We are always chasing a percentage somewhere.
One more hectare an hour.
One less litre of diesel.
One more piece of data.
One more bit of automation.
But efficiency can also be having two machines where the bloke in the workshop already knows which bearing is required.
It can be having one box of the same points on the shelf.
It can be putting another operator in the tractor without spending half a day teaching them an entirely different setup.
Standardisation is an efficiency too.
It might not look as exciting on a brochure.
But when there is rain coming and you need seed in the ground, I reckon it becomes pretty exciting.
The O’Connor Farming rigs featured in EP23 are both running 11-inch row spacing with knife-point tines and press wheels.
I want to be careful here because row spacing and opener choice are not things where one answer suits every grower.
So rather than telling everybody that 11 inches is the magic number, let us break down what each part is trying to do.
Knife point: creates a relatively narrow soil opening and places seed through the seeding system at the selected depth.
Tine: carries the opener through the soil and needs enough breakout and strength to handle the conditions it is working in.
Press wheel: follows the opener, helping close and firm the furrow to improve seed-to-soil contact.
Row spacing: determines the distance between crop rows and influences the whole seeding system, from trash flow through to crop competition and machinery configuration.
Horwood Bagshaw itself highlights press wheels as a way of improving seed-to-soil contact and helping conserve moisture in its current seeding systems.
That makes sense in the heavier soils Luke talks about.
The machine has to penetrate.
Place seed consistently.
Then close the job properly behind itself.
The bar being strong is useless if the seed placement is rubbish.
And that is the bit we sometimes forget when talking about how heavily equipment is built.
The real result is what comes up behind it.
During the episode, Luke was sowing Maximus barley.
He talked us through the program being used in that paddock at the time:
Those are the rates Luke discussed for the paddock we filmed.
They are not a recommendation for somebody else’s farm.
Seed and fertiliser rates should suit the soil, seasonal conditions, target establishment, yield potential and agronomic program.
For anyone interested in the variety itself, Maximus CL is an IMI-tolerant, quick-to-mid-maturing malt barley.
Baker Seed Co describes it as having strong lodging tolerance, good grain plumpness and a useful disease-resistance package.
And this is another reason I like Talking Gear Tuesday.
One conversation about an air seeder suddenly has me learning barley varieties as well.
I went digging into Horwood Bagshaw because Luke clearly has a lot of faith in the gear.
And the history is actually pretty interesting.
Horwood Bagshaw traces its beginnings to 1838, when John Stokes Bagshaw established the Pioneer Works in Adelaide.
John Henry Horwood later established JH Horwood & Co in 1882.
The businesses came together in 1924 when JH Horwood & Co was acquired by JS Bagshaw & Sons and Horwood Bagshaw Ltd was formed.
In 1972, Horwood Bagshaw acquired David Shearer at Mannum.
Then in 1974 the company made the decision to consolidate its Adelaide operations at Mannum.
In 2018, Horwood Bagshaw was acquired by CNH.
But here is the bit worth highlighting.
Horwood Bagshaw says its design, engineering, manufacturing and assembly continue to be carried out in Australia.
So when Luke talks about Australian-built equipment designed for Australian country, there is a genuine history behind that.
The current range has obviously evolved substantially from the old equipment.
Modern Horwood machines can include electric metering, variable-rate systems, ISOBUS compatibility and other precision-ag capability.
But the company still pushes the same core themes Luke was talking about.
Durability.
Reliability.
Australian conditions.
This episode got me thinking about something we keep coming back to.
Technology.
Data.
Automation.
Variable rate.
Sensors.
Electric drives.
Subscriptions.
Everything we add generally exists for a reason.
Most of it is trying to create an efficiency or make a better agronomic decision.
And I am not anti-tech.
Far from it.
We have filmed camera sprayers, next-generation headers, machine automation and gear doing some mental things.
But there is another side.
Every extra system is another system that has to work.
Another sensor.
Another wire.
Another screen.
Another controller.
Another piece of software.
Potentially another thing requiring support when you have a weather window disappearing.
So I do not think the question is:
“Is technology good or bad?”
I think the question is:
Does the technology earn its place in your operation?
If it gives you better placement, saves inputs, reduces overlap or gives you information that changes a decision, unreal.
If you paid for it and never turn it on, then maybe there is a conversation to be had.
Luke’s approach is useful because it is not about rejecting technology.
It is about knowing what his operation needs and sticking with a system the family trusts.
Simple where simple works.
Technology where technology adds value.
I reckon that is a pretty sensible place to land.
This is exactly why Broadacre created Talking Gear Tuesday.
Most people outside Luke’s immediate region would never get the chance to stand beside these machines and ask him why the family has stuck with Horwood Bagshaw.
So we bring the camera.
We ask questions.
We let the person running the equipment explain it.
Then we take that story and put it in front of growers, contractors, manufacturers and everyone else who loves this industry.
If you are running something worth talking about, we want to hear about it.
We will travel for a good yarn.
And Luke actually comes back again later in the Talking Gear Tuesday series, where we get into why O’Connor Farming still sees a place for Class 7 headers.
Broadacre Contracting helps growers connect with sowing, seeding and planting contractors across Australia.
Luke O’Connor currently has a contract sowing listing through Broadacre, and there are other tillage and seeding operators available across the network.
If you are posting a sowing job, give contractors enough information to know whether the opportunity actually suits their gear.
Once the tender is posted, registered users can view the job details.
Paid membership is required to access the poster’s contact options and direct messaging.
If the grower requires additional trust signals, the tender can also be restricted to verified contractors.
If the farm is outside those places, call anyway.
Broadacre exists to connect growers and contractors across agricultural Australia.
This article comes directly from our Talking Gear Tuesday episode with Luke O’Connor from O’Connor Farming.
The video is the best place to see the machines in the paddock, hear Luke’s reasoning directly and understand why the family has stuck with this setup.
You can read my interpretation of it all day.
But the bloke actually running the gear is always going to explain it better.
Watch Talking Gear Tuesday EP23 with Luke O’Connor at Deniliquin and have a look at why O’Connor Farming keeps backing its Horwood Bagshaw sowing setups.
Talking Gear Tuesday EP23 features Luke O’Connor from O’Connor Farming at Deniliquin NSW. Dillon and Luke discuss the family’s two Horwood Bagshaw sowing setups, Case Magnum tractors, matching machinery, knife-point tines, press wheels, Maximus barley and why O’Connor Farming values simple and reliable equipment.
Give the contractor your location, hectares, crop type, expected start date, required seeding system, row-spacing requirements, seed and fertiliser program, controlled-traffic requirements and whether specialised capabilities such as variable rate are needed. Clear information makes it easier for the contractor to decide whether their equipment suits the job.
Matching or similar equipment can simplify spare-parts inventories, operator training, maintenance and machine setup. It can also make it easier to achieve comparable depth and seed placement when multiple machines are working through the same sowing program.
Horwood Bagshaw states that the design, engineering, manufacturing and assembly of its machinery continue to be carried out in Australia. The business has South Australian manufacturing roots dating back to 1838 and became part of CNH in 2018.
No. Horwood Bagshaw has a reputation for durable Australian-built equipment, but its current air seeder range can also include electric-drive metering, ISOBUS control and variable-rate capability. O’Connor Farming’s comments about simplicity relate to the family’s preferred setup and the benefits of running familiar, proven machinery.
Press wheels follow the opener and firm the soil around or above the seed furrow. Their role can include improving seed-to-soil contact and helping create a more consistent environment for crop establishment. The ideal pressure and configuration depend on the soil, crop and sowing system.
Different openers and row spacings create different levels of soil disturbance, trash handling and seed placement. If a grower has specific requirements, they should tell the contractor before booking rather than assuming every air seeder will produce the same result.
Maximus CL is a quick-to-mid-maturing, IMI-tolerant malt barley. Baker Seed Co describes it as a high-yielding variety with strong lodging tolerance, good grain plumpness and improved disease characteristics compared with Spartacus CL. The seed and fertiliser rates discussed in EP23 are specific to the O’Connor Farming paddock filmed and are not a general agronomic recommendation.
Yes. Luke O’Connor has a Contract Sowing listing through Broadacre Contracting. Availability, travel distance, pricing and suitability will depend on the particular job and season.
You can view O’Connor Farming’s contract sowing listing or call Dillon at Broadacre Contracting on 0439 300 380. Growers can also post a tender with their location, hectares, timing and equipment requirements so suitable contractors can assess the opportunity.
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