Dillon from Broadacre Contracting yarns with Jimmy from Pitson Contracting about building a family-run...
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Legends, hope your day is going alright.
But there is a possibility that if you need my help, it is not, and that is alright.
As the boys on the Catch My Drift podcast say, a problem shared is a problem halved.
So if you have had a breakdown, need to hire something or need a contractor, and you are in a rush to find what you need, give Dillon at Broadacre Contracting a call on 0439 300 380.
We will solve your problem straight away.
We generally say we are available from 6am to 9pm, but honestly, if it is urgent, it is urgent.
If you have time and you are not in the paddock watching a front build up, feel free to make an account on the Broadacre Contracting website and do it yourself by going to My Account > New Tender Post > Post the job.
An instant alert will be sent out.
Make sure you come back to enjoy this spreading yarn though.
Dillon from Broadacre Contracting is back out at Birchip in the Victorian Mallee.
I think this is the 20th visit, but yep, back again, and back catching up with Alex from Noonan Contracting.
The boys do a fair bit of spreading contracting, and today we are having a look at their Hansa spreader.
It is an Australian-made trailed spreader, and out the front is the good old reliable Case Steiger pulling it.
Now here is a little ripper of a fact to kick us off.
We have just learnt that the Hansa spreader is built in Ballarat, and it is actually owned and built by Southern Spreaders.
If you tuned in for Episode 6 with Jack from Margetts Ag, you will remember he was running truck-body-mounted Southern Spreaders gear, also made in Ballarat.
It is good to see the same Ballarat shed keep turning up across the contractors we yarn with.
Overall, I just love supporting Australians. We need to respect our Aussie businesses as they have copped it hard.
Our country and our political system do not really back onshore manufacturing. Hats off to them.
So before we dive in, if you are a grower needing a hand with your spreading program, or a contractor wanting to build your reputation and build relationships with growers, give Dillon a buzz on 0439 300 380 from 6am to 9pm.
Just a warning, he loves to have a yarn.
And if it is urgent, just ring, ring, and we will help in any way possible.
Noonan Contracting do a bit of spreading contracting with this setup.
It spreads lime, gypsum and granular products, and the boys also do manure with it.
The manure they have been running through it is duck manure, and they have done a fair bit of it.
It seems to do a pretty good job, and they also do quite a bit of urea and gypsum around the area.
It is a big spreader.
It is 23 cubic metres, so it holds about 14 to 16 tonne of urea or 27 tonne of gypsum.
Manure is a fair bit lighter, so it depends how much moisture is in the manure really.
That is one of the biggest advantages with these kinds of spreaders. They are pretty handy because you are not stopping in the middle of a run.
Particularly on the gypsum job, throwing out high rates, you are not back at the pile all the time.
With this one, you can do a few laps.
Works quite well.
The boys did not explain too much here, but from memory, they have access to duck manure because there is a duck farm in the family.
From what I have read, duck and poultry manure is some of the better stuff you can come across.
It tends to be higher in nitrogen and phosphorus than cattle manure.
Funny enough, it got me thinking about how bird droppings have always been gold for growers.
The whole island of Nauru was basically built on seabird poo, mined for phosphate for over a hundred years.
Wild when you think about it.
Bird manure is no joke.
I am not a financial advisor and this is not financial advice, but if there is an island somewhere with a heap of birds on it, buy it.
The spreader the boys are running is much the same size as everything else we have looked at in previous Talking Gear Tuesday episodes.
A good example would be Episode 4 and 9 with Customized Spreading, and Episode 10 with Fithall Ag who are running the muck spreader.
I honestly feel a lot of growers in the broadacre space are going this way, once they get a taste for these large spreaders.
The three-point linkage ones are good, do not get me wrong.
But mate, once you have one of these bigger spreaders on farm, it takes a lot to not have one.
I actually see growers nowadays running both, the 3PL Amazone or Kuhn setup and a Hansa or Bredal.
Every bit of gear has its place, and these bigger ones are earning their keep every day.
When it comes to spreading, time is of the essence.
We are chasing fronts and windows here.
This was me asking Alex.
Now, it is not an important question, but it is one I wanted to ask.
When you load it, do you load from the front to the back, or the back to the front?
Alex’s answer was simple.
“I load from the front to the back to put weight on the drawbar, so it does not kick the back end of the tractor up.”
Pretty standard.
We all know we should load from the front to the back, but I thought I would ask, as recently I have been doing the opposite.
The reason being, I was up north on the farm by myself and had around 1,000ha to spread, flicking urea out at 150kg.
So I was pulling up under the auger at the very back of the spreader, locking out the rear axle, and each time it built up I was reversing a bit.
The reason why is so I did not spill anything, and it just worked perfectly.
Once it was getting properly full, everything was in my vision at the very front, as that was the last part to fill up.
It just worked a bloody treat.
Now as I think about it, a camera mounted up high would work a treat.
Anyway, I would be keen to hear what you think of the way I was doing it, if you understand me.
These spreaders are built by an Australian company, Ballarat-based Southern Spreaders / Hansa.
That is probably a massive drawcard and why the boys bought it.
You can source parts locally and all that sort of stuff.
It is not too far to run down there.
The spreader has a Topcon controller, auto headland shut-off and weigh scales.
You can change spinner speeds and rates from the cab, with static and dynamic mode.
When changing from granular to manure or gypsum, you just change a tray at the back, which changes the drop point on the spinners.
The rates have been good, so the boys are really happy with it.
The scales are spot on and pretty simple.
You can tare them from the cab.
How good is it?
Ahh, the serenity, as the famous Aussie movie The Castle put it.
It really is just good to see Aussie built, and it being the desired choice because of that.
Hats off to the Noonan boys for thinking that way, honestly.
Alex has really just ripped in and explained what I was saying in Talking Gear Tuesday Episode 10 with Fithall Ag about the Topcon Apollo rate controller and setup.
It really is the king of technology for spreaders, that is just my opinion.
There is not much more I can say here, as I am going to start sounding like a broken record.
But if you want the deep dive into the Apollo, go back to the Episode 10 blog, legends.
A lot of other spreader companies have apps built for you to look at your door heights and different settings for different rates.
These boys do not have an app.
They give you a book when you purchase it.
It has your rough door heights, spinner speeds and rates, so you can fine-tune a little bit, but the manual is pretty bang on.
You cannot beat the old trusty book. Phones do not always work out here anyway.
Mhhm, I still feel it would be a good investment.
The reason I am going to say that is because, Hansa, Southern Spreaders, if you see this, reach out.
We can build the app for you.
So yes, I think they should have an app.
Now that is a sales pitch.
Hahaha.
Nah, I am joking.
Well, no I am not. If they want an app built, there is no one better to do it than us.
But in all honesty, the book is perfect.
They are good, they are simple, and a lot of growers do prefer them.
But most growers either put it in the office in a safe spot, or it gets stored in what is normally the only tractor the spreader goes on.
Time and time again I see them getting lost or destroyed, and that is the gap an app fills.
A book serves its purpose. An app serves more than its purpose.
Anyway, moving on.
It is a chain-driven floor system.
Most cassettes are just a rubber belt normally, but with a belt system, if you put 27 tonne of gypsum on it, the hydraulic motors would have too much weight and might not be able to push it through.
The chain helps it feed through, and it helps with manure too.
It does not bridge up; it brings the manure back through.
A mate of Alex’s has been running these sorts of spreaders for a fair while and has not changed any chains at all.
If they do wear or stretch, you just tension it up or take a link out.
They have got a good rep, that is for sure.
Okay, so I am really struggling with this Talking Gear Tuesday blog, simply because we have nearly had the identical conversation in Episode 10.
We dived into chains, but I keep reminding myself that each one brings out a little bit of detail we may have missed.
That real little detail here is, if the chain stretches too much, you can just pull a link out.
We might have touched on it earlier in terms of “if it stretches, just adjust it,” but we did not explicitly say take a link out.
So even though I am feeling a bit broken record, I feel we are all learning something in some way, and really, that is all that matters.
The Hansa spreader has steerable axles, which are handy when you have a heap of weight on with a big spreader.
You need them so they do not rip up the paddocks when you are turning.
The chain tension is on a spring and is quite easily accessible.
You adjust it to about 65mm to keep the right tension.
The boys have barely had to touch it.
There are about five daily grease points.
It also has hydraulic brakes fitted.
I am feeling the simple vibe here.
Simple and effective.
Five grease points, run your eyes over everything in the morning, and measure your tensions right in front of you if the chain seems to not be tracking bang on.
How good.
This is actually the perfect gear for when you are working somewhere real isolated.
Say you are way out past Lake Bolac or up in the back blocks of the Mallee.
The simpler the setup, the less there is to go wrong.
When you are hours from the nearest dealer or cannot get a decent phone signal, that means everything.
No relays or sensors to throw a hissy fit and shut the whole show down on you. Just a solid machine you can run your eyes over of a morning and trust all day.
This is Aussie built through and through.
Noonan Contracting runs the Hansa spreader on a Steiger 335, with both the spreader and the Steiger on 3m wheel spacings.
They are running RTK and running the spreader through the GPS Trimble system as well.
For spread width, it is 36m throw for granulars, 12m for manure, and 14m for gypo and lime.
It gets a good even spread, that is for sure.
They set up the trays when they first got it and check them about once a year.
They made a few adjustments to it early on, different drop points on the spinners to get it spreading evenly, but it is spot on now.
Changing a tray is a two-second job.
Changing your spreading setup on the rear takes 2 minutes.
Bang, done like that.
Keep it simple.
What I am interested in is what the issue was in the early days, not hitting the spinners in the correct area.
I would love it if Southern Spreaders came in and explained what happened in the early days, how they found out and what the process was to fix it.
I love that stuff.
Noonan Contracting is based out of Birchip, Victoria, but they are looking for work all over and willing to travel for the right job.
So reach out if you are looking for any spreading work.
Now here is the thing.
Alex and the Noonan crew are based up in Birchip, and they will travel for the right job, no worries there.
But if you are farming down around Lake Bolac, Ararat, Willaura, Streatham or anywhere through the Western District, you might be thinking, “That is a fair way north for a spreader.”
And that is exactly where Broadacre Contracting comes into its own.
One contractor can only be in one place at a time.
But Broadacre has verified contractors scattered right across the country, including contractors based around Lake Bolac and the Western District.
We can cover every inch of Australia.
So whether it is gypsum on the volcanic country, a lime program, urea in front of a break, or a load of manure, you post the job, an instant alert goes out, and whoever is available and local gives you a bell.
You are not waiting on one operator to drive three hours.
You are getting matched to someone in your patch.
That is the whole point of what we have built. Made by farmers, for farmers.
We have a very unique system here at Broadacre Contracting.
We work on core values of respect, reliability and responsibility.
We are actively seeking to build new relationships.
We want to be a part of your success story.
If you want to have a yarn about finding a reliable spreading contractor, whether you are farming around Lake Bolac, Ararat, Willaura, Streatham, Westmere, Glenthompson or anywhere across the broadacre belt in Australia, give Dillon a call on 0439 300 380 from 6am to 9pm.
Please remember we are made by farmers for farmers.
Broadacre Contracting is here to help growers’ and contractors’ bottom line.
These resources may help growers and contractors view the listing, watch the episode, post a job, browse more spreading contractors or understand the Hansa / Southern Spreaders gear discussed in this yarn.
If you are looking for spreading contractors around Lake Bolac, Ararat, Willaura, Streatham, Westmere, Glenthompson or anywhere across the broadacre belt, Broadacre Contracting gives you a clearer place to start.
View Noonan Contracting’s Hansa spreader, post a tender, or browse more Talking Gear Tuesday episodes to see how we showcase the people behind the gear.
Noonan Contracting is a broadacre farming and contracting business based around Birchip in the Victorian Mallee. The team provides harvesting, spraying, spreading, cartage and other agricultural contracting services.
In this Talking Gear Tuesday yarn, Alex from Noonan Contracting talks through their Hansa T23 trailed spreader, pulled by a Case Steiger and used for urea, gypsum, lime, manure and granular spreading.
Yes. Hansa and Southern Spreaders are connected through Ballarat-based Australian spreading equipment manufacturing. The gear discussed in this yarn is part of that Australian-made spreader story.
The episode discusses urea, gypsum, lime, granular products and duck manure. The spreader has the capacity and chain-driven system to handle a range of products depending on rate, density and paddock conditions.
In the episode, Alex talks about 36m for granulars, 12m for manure, and 14m for gypsum and lime, with the spreader and Steiger running on 3m wheel spacings and RTK guidance.
Yes. Noonan Contracting is based in Birchip, Victoria, but they are open to travelling for the right spreading job.
You can view spreading contractors through Broadacre Contracting, browse spreading listings or post a tender so verified contractors can see the job and contact you directly.
Talking Gear Tuesday is Broadacre Contracting’s video series where we sit down with growers, contractors and ag operators to yarn about gear, businesses, risks, lessons and the real stories behind Australian agriculture.
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