South Australian contractor Nick Pratt expects big things from his new Duncan AS6100 folding tine drill.
Specialising in hay bailing and pasture renovation, Pratt contracts from his home in Penola 50km north of Mount Gambier. Pratt, who previously used a 26-row seed drill with six-inch spacings as his main drill, bought his new Duncan AS6100 in April.
Pratt says he’d looked at a few different brands but had gone with the New-Zealand-made Duncan as he’d done a dairy study in New Zealand in 1994 and felt that farmers in NZ were some of the best at growing grass in the world.
“The Duncan is a true pasture renovation machine and that’s the line we are going down with our contracting,” he says.
The addition of finger tines and coulters to the Duncan AS6100 has been beneficial, Pratt says.
“It has the coulters on the front, with a Baker boot and rubber-tyre roller on the back,” he says. “There are L-shaped finger tines for seed incorporation.
“Our other drill didn’t have coulters. We had very good success without them, but we thought the coulters would probably help handle trash.
“The finger tines weren’t on our old machine but when the seed falls out the back on the Duncan it gets incorporated more,” Pratt adds.
Pratt’s son James has been using the Duncan AS6100 since May and has already covered 500ha of pasture and cereal cover crops, producing a beautiful finish.
“The Duncan leaves a better finished product out the back of the machine; it has totally lived up to our expectations,” Pratt says. “There were a few little teething problems with it but we have sorted those out.”
The Duncan AS6100 folding tine drill is towed behind a 250hp Case IH Magnum tractor.
“We bought the tractor new for the drill because we wanted to make sure we had adequate horsepower,” Pratt says. “We are very happy with the set up and we are certainly hoping to build our clientele base over the next couple or three years to expand our contracting business.”
The family has picked up a 120ha seeding job for its new Duncan tine drill since purchasing the Duncan AS6100 from Hage Tractors and Implements Naracoorte.
“Seeding is quite seasonal and goes from April through to July and then we start again in August-September and go through until October-November for spring and summer sowing,” Pratt says.
“With the drilling there is huge potential for more work,” Pratt says. “With the price of land almost doubling over the last 12-18 months, I feel that farmers need to get more out of the land they have got.”
“With beef prices being on a high, it’s a good time for farmers to improve their pastures,” he adds.