Refundable Tax Offset of 15%

Brilliant opportunity to go Liquid with the Conservation Tillage Refundable Tax Offset – 15%

If you have been thinking about upgrading to a new air tool or air cart it is also great time to enhance your rig and seeding regime to liquid.

This refundable tax offset is available for eligible seeders installed ready for use between 1 July 2012 and 30 June 2015.

For full details from the DAFF Here & the ATO Click Here

Read the story below.  The Gason Liquid Aircart & Air Tool are eligible for the RTO. See above for further details.

“Liquid All the Rage”

Article from Weekly Times written by from Andrea Mayes
Family business: Gary with his wife Carolyn and children Harry and Hollianne with the family’s new Gason seeding system. Picture: Greg Scullin

Gary and Carolyn Hallam live at Mockinya, 27km south of Horsham, with their two young children, Harry and Hollianne.

The Hallams recently made a major investment in the future of their cropping program with the purchase of a Gason liquid air seeder from Hicks Machinery at Horsham.

The couple had used a Gason cultibar and air cart for several years and stayed with the brand when they changed to a liquid sowing system.

Their sowing rig includes a new Gason 12m narrow centre-spring Scaritill on 182mm tyne spacing with Gason three-row finger tyne harrows.

Behind the Scaritill is the Gason 2150 rear-tow liquid and granular air seeder fitted with a Farmscan 3500 variable rate controller.

The air seeder has a 3800-litre granular bin, a 4800-litre granular bin and two 2500-litre tanks which can handle different liquids as required.

Each of the 2500-litre liquid compartments has two agitation nozzles to maintain fertiliser in suspension.

The Hallams have the rig set up with a 500-litre freshwater flush tank and a 600-litre small seeder pasture planter with a distribution kit that can sow either across the rear of the Scaritill or divert the seed to the primary sowing boot.

The air pipe can carry seed and granular fertiliser. And the liquid pipe, which fits between the tyne shank and the sowing boot, can carry liquid fertiliser and trace elements.

This means the rig can sow seed and granular fertiliser, or seed, liquid trace elements and liquid fertiliser, or a combination of seed, granular fertiliser and liquid trace elements, which is what the Hallams did this year.

Mr Hallam said he became interested in the liquid sowing system after seeing the results on neighbouring farms using liquid air carts.

“I know they say the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence but I could see there was something else going on,” he said.

“It was a big investment for us but we could see for ourselves what was happening and we knew about the results they’ve been getting in Western Australia and South Australia too.

“We haven’t gone into all the soil science.

“We’ve looked at the yields and listened to word of mouth from people using this technology.

“We are following a program with a blend that has worked well in similar conditions to ours.

“Being able to apply UAN and fertiliser in the one pass saves a lot of time and we hope the new system will significantly improve yields.

“We’re looking at a three-year time frame to allow for seasonal variations and soil improvements.”

This season, the Hallams have sown 323ha of canola, 323ha of wheat, 202ha of broad beans, 40ha of lupins and 20ha of vetch.

They haul the Scaritill and Gason liquid air cart with a 1983 242kW Steiger tractor fitted with Trimble RTX GPS, sowing at 11-16km/h depending on crop and conditions.

They have a 9000-litre tank for trace elements and a 22,000-litre tank for UAN on the property.

AF Gason national sales manager Peter Piddington said there had been growing interest in liquid seeders in the Western District, the Mallee and northern NSW in the past five years, driven by yield increases and improvements in the price and supply of fertilisers.

“The technology has been out there for 10 years and there have been many changes during that time,” he said.

“We’ve all learned a lot and there’s no doubt farmers are getting great results with liquid systems.”

• Visit gason.com.au or phone Hicks Machinery on (03) 5381 0370.