Candeloro Farms, Toodyay WA

Our family crops 12,000ha In the area of Toodyay WA, rotating Canola, Wheat, Barley, and Lupins. As with everyone the whole aim of our farming enterprise is to make a profit and managing weeds is right up there with what we are trying to achieve.

What has been your Harvest Weed Seed Control journey so far?

We got out of stock 18 years ago and knew we needed to do something to get on top of the weeds. We started out 12 years ago with windrowing, then chaff topping for a few years, then around 5 years ran chaff carts until we invested in the mill technology in 2017. We jumped in early with prototype mill technology purely because we had to control Ryegrass. Radish was an issue, but we have it under control now. Bromegrass is another big one for us, in combination they cost us a lot of money in yield.

How did you go with wearing parts last harvest?

Obviously longevity of the mills is beneficial, but we weren't expecting to get more than a year out of them anyway, two years we would've been stoked! We've had independent lab tests done over all our varieties, around 25 samples, and the Seed Terminator has consistently killed 95%.

How will you feel harvesting a weedy patch of the crop this year?

Like we've got some Revenge! Past few years we've been up against it. Nothing has worked, we've tried crop topping but have had issues with escaping weeds. Whereas I know anything entering the mills is going to be killed.

How important is harvester setup for HWSC?

Harvester setup is the biggest thing to get your head around. If you can comfortably harvest with 2 headers, you may need to consider 3 if you want to do HWSC properly. We slow right down, for example, in bulky crops to allow the straw to process and in some conditions, you just have to stop and move to a different paddock. We are introducing windrowing this harvest to try and get the weeds while they are green before they've set, to reduce the losses at the cutter bar.

You've decided to upgrade your MY17 Seed Terminator, what influenced this decision?

We would've held off on the upgrade kit if it wasn't for the wear package released with the MY18 Seed Terminator. We're hoping to have fewer constraints from weed pressure, free up our rotations and increase profit margins.

What do you see as the future of this technology?

New chemicals aren't being developed, just different modes of action and we are running out of options pretty quickly. Harvest to harvest, all year round we have to be conscious of weed management; combining chemicals just isn't enough, weeds are developing herbicide resistance quickly. If they ban glyphosate, and one day it may happen, I estimate 60% of farmers within our local shire wouldn't be able to crop. We've all been looking for something mechanical for a long time. I think the mill technology needs to be introduced to all headers, across all farms, its a good move for Australian Agriculture.