Increased capacity and high flotation tyres have made the John Deere C650 an ideal air cart for NSW farmer Jamie Wright, who has expanded his operations.
When the fourth generation primary producer and his family purchased more land and expanded their cropping area by 40 per cent, they realised their need for a bigger air seeder with the capacity to cover 2600 hectares quickly and efficiently.
Jamie and his wife Alisha, along with their three children and four full-time employees crop wheat, canola, barley and spelt on two properties in Central West New South Wales, with the home base at 'Springfield', 20 kilometres from Grenfell.
Their machine of choice was a John Deere C650 tow-behind air cart, which arrived in March this year and immediately made an impression.
"The first use was quite exciting," Mr Wright said.
"The C650's efficiency and high flotation tyres stood out instantly. There was less compaction of the soil, we could get over a greater amount of ground in a shorter period and work in a variety of weather conditions.
"We preferred a tow-behind rather than a tow-between for manoeuvrability and visibility, and we've found the configuration and steerable axle of the C650 means it tows nice and straight behind our John Deere P500 Seeder Bar."
The Wrights previously towed a 430 bushel 1910 air cart behind a 12-metre John Deere P500 seeder bar.
Mr Wright happily admits he 'bleeds green' and has already bought a new John Deere 9R 540 tractor to replace the 9410R that pulled the new C650 during the current seeding program.
The new air cart's bigger 650-bushel tank and fill rate of up to 100 bushels per minute has meant less time stopping to fill up, which is a major bonus.
"The tank fills very well - we don't have to push seed into corners - and we can monitor the tanks through a camera in each and there's also one with a rear-hitch view," he said.
"Other fantastic points are the ActiveCal option, that allows us to automatically calibrate metering on the run from the Gen 4 display in the cab, and the scales on each tank, which show us exactly how much is in them at any time.
"We can fill each individual tank with the appropriate amount of seed and fertiliser to do the known area, so we don't run out or have a heap left over. That's a great benefit."
Mr Wright also purchased the optional 4800L liquid centre tank for the C650, to distribute a blend of calcium, nitrogen, zinc, boron and biostimulants at the same time as seeding.
The C650 has also proved its worth by reducing the time spent sowing.
"It's certainly been labour-saving," Mr Wright said.
"No one worked on a Sunday, we didn't have to put super-long hours in and we finished ahead of schedule.
"With 50pc more capacity and the 50pc wider seeder bar we finished a week or 10 days ahead of what we normally would."
The Wrights also enlisted the support of technicians at his local John Deere dealership, Hutcheon & Pearce at Cowra, to familiarise himself with the C650, especially SectionCommand which manages seed and fertiliser application by minimising overlaps and skips.
"Once we were used to it the section control was very good," Mr Wright said.
"The Hutcheon & Pearce guys do a really good job in supporting us.".
Asked for his advice to other growers about the C650 Air Cart, he doesn't hesitate.
"The efficiency and ease of use will be hard to quantify until you have it in your own paddock but it's fantastic," he said.
"I'm really glad we've made it part of our John Deere equipment family."
