The original air seeder has been upgraded in an attempt to regain its market share.
Great Western Manufacturing sales and marketing manager Stewart Kings said since the company's purchase of brand Gyral in 2014, they had been working on developing the next generation of its air seeder.
"What Gyral has been known for over many years, since the Fuss family invented and patented the original concept, has been the air seeder," he said.
"The air seeder is the flagship of the company, so we wanted to invest and put it back in the marketplace. There were Australian competitors doing a better job, so we consulted with our existing Excel customer database about what we needed to do with the Gyral cart."
Mr Kings said this consultation resulted in a list of features, including steering, load cells and hydraulic variable rate, which over the last five years had been incorporated onto the Gyral air seeders.
"We've also come up a brand new model, the extra large chassis, which gives us a range that goes up to 28,000 litres of wheat in a three bin capacity machine," he said.
Mr Kings said each customer wants something different from their air seeder.
"They might want an original ground drive, like their father bought 40 years ago. They put them into gear, they calibrate them, nothing can change because it is a gearbox, unless damage is given to the gearbox," he said.
"Then we go through to air seeders where people want control. They want to control the metering device, which we do through either hydraulics or electrics, with control from a screen in the cab."
Mr Kings said technology now allowed the operator to cross check the calibration from the cabin.
"With the addition of load cells under each bin they are effectively triple checking the planting rate," he said.
"We have customers who weigh the product from the silo through the chaser bin, then they cross-check the weight from the bin in the Gyral air seeder, and while working in the paddock the GPS tells them how many hectares they have done, so they can check the weight on the cell verse the job done.
"This means they are monitoring the seed all the way through, they know they put the right weight in and the right planting rate."
Mr Kings said technology could mean a farmer saved time and money, however how much depended on the operation. "They aren't left with leftover seed to unload, or run short before they finish a paddock," he said. "It can be as simple as a ground drive, set it and walk away, all they need to know is that the seed is coming out of the shaft, some people will put a flag on the shaft or a reversing camera in the face of the metering rollers."
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