R.U.M. KO's Yellow Leaf Spot on wheat!

Talk is cheap they say, especially around the huge 50,000 acre wheat property 'Milton Downs', near Moree, where the talk is of "a bit of a miracle!"

After aerial spraying R.U.M. Liquid Plant Food on 20,000 acres of newly emerged wheat, manager Reg Smith was looking forward to the results.

He got more than he bargained for, however, when he found that a section of the crop affected by the 'fungus-like' Yellow Leaf Spot showed signs of improvement.

"There's no treatment for this condition in wheat", he said. "You can usually count on crop losses of 15%."

However, to prove that the remedy for Yellow Leaf Spot was 'no lucky accident' he is now treating an extra 43,000 acres with R.U.M. at the rate of @L per acre! Needless to say, other farmers in the area are starting to ask questions... like "where can I get some of that stuff!"

...it's not unusual to come out in the morning and find it eaten down to ground level by cutworms...

Reg also is keen to experiment with R.U.M. as a medium to hold insecticide on plants and thus improve the insecticides efficiency. "I sometimes put in a bit of sorghum and it's not unusual to come out in the morning to find the emerging plant has been eaten down to ground level by cut worms. If you spray you only kill what you see. But I want to hold the insecticide on the plant for longer and make it work when I'm asleep. And I reckon R.U.M. has that property. Anyway, it's worth a try."

Well, folks, we hope to bring you the results of that experiment next issue... that is if the 'cotton boys' haven't tried it first! Good luck Reg and keep up the good work!

P.S. 'Milton Downs' boasts one of the largest single paddocks in NSW... a 62,500 acre whopper! This is serious farming! So, when 'Milton Downs' talks we are inclined to listen... closely. We thank them for their recent order for well over 100,000 litres. Beaulieu R.U.M. must be doing something right!

'Sustainable' adj.

endure without giving away or yielding; keep up or keep going.

The Macquarie Dictionary

The most important word in agriculture today, some say, is 'sustainable'...

How long can we keep cultivating the earth, tearing down in decades what it took nature a millennium to build?

How much longer can our soil cop the punishment we hand out in the name of "modern farming practice"?

Can the land sustain us indefinitely when, for many farmers, it seems to take more and more chemicals to produce a static annual return?

All 'Tied-Up' at Pallamallawa!

A leading farmer in the Pallamallawa district, Peter Maughan, has expressed concerns about the tendency of local soils to 'tie-up' Nitrogen.

"Five years ago we only required 20 units of Nitrogen but now some people are up to around 100 units and not getting any better yield for it."

"One of the largest costs we've got, especially in this eastern country, is our fertiliser cost and if we can find some way of reducing it, and still get the same result, then it makes our 'break-even' point easier to attain."

Peter said he reduced his costs of 'follow-up' Nitrogen units by using R.U.M. at the rate of 4L/ha. He estimates that some of his costs came down by 30%. He also reported a 'best-ever' weed kill when adding herbicides to his R.U.M. mix.

Peter Maughan, "Bellevue", Pallamallawa, inspects the progress of his wheat crop with Choc Irwin, developer of R.U.M. Liquid Plant Food. Applying it via boom-spray as a follow-up method of adding Nitrogen, Peter credits R.U.M. with reducing some input costs by up to 30%.