Leading the tracked seeding system was a Case IH Steiger, which was closely followed by a 24.38m (80 feet) wide NDF bar (on tracks) and at the rear was a John Deere 1910 cart, on tracks as well.

With about 4500ha of crops sown each year on the family property in the Victorian Wimmera, the Rethus’ have been sold on controlled traffic farming and the benefits of no tillage and retaining stubble.

“The use of tracks fit the system well,” Geoff said.

The Rethus’ have been disc seeding for almost a decade and started the controlled traffic approach with a one to three ratio (the harvester and seeder were 40 feet wide and the sprayer was 120 feet wide).

With the new, custom-made NDF bar, the cropping system now uses a 40 feet wide harvester, 80 foot seeder and Geoff hopes to soon introduce a 160 feet wide boom spray.

“We originally had a Challenger tractor on tracks and then went to a four-wheel-drive tractor on single IF tyres but we found the IF tyres running at low pressures were difficult to keep in the GPS tracks.”

Read more about Rethus’ cropping gear in the Machinery section of the July edition of the Farming Ahead magazine.