R.U.M. features in record crop

A record wheat harvest had Reg Smith, manager of 'Milton Downs', Bellata, speechless last month.

Faced with 50,000 acres of wheat in prime condition, Reg spent nearly a fortnight on his two-way radio marshalling his 'army' of headers and trucks around NSW's single biggest crop... and lost his voice in the process!

With eight giant Gleaners, and just about every other header and truck on the Northern Tablelands hard at work, it resembled a scene from the 'Mad Max' movie.

The record strip hit 7,200 tonnes per day... despite Reg stopping the harvest on occasions to minimise the fire risk in the hot winds.

Last week, Reg paid tribute to R.U.M. Liquid Plant Food. "We used over 100,000L of R.U.M. to put the crop in and reduced our usual chemical fertiliser costs by around 33%", he said, "so if you think of the money that 50,000 acres chews up in planting outlays, it's easy to justify using R.U.M. on purely economic grounds."

Interested observers (from left): Peter Irwin (Beaulieu), Alan Hardman (WA), Steve Blore (Balranald) and Choc Irwin (Beaulieu), inspect some of the record 62,000 tonne wheat crop at 'Milton Downs', Bellata, near Moree. All 50,000 acres had been prepared using Beaulieu R.U.M. Liquid Plant Food.

"Another unusual thing", Reg added, "was that this year we were remarkably free from crop damage There was a lot of armyworm around our area but it left us pretty much alone... and some wheat that had Yellow Leaf Spot came good after we sprayed with R.U.M. So our herbicide, insecticide and fungicide costs were lower than usual. And I don't remember when that last happened!"

Part of Reg Smith's 'army'; a giant Gleaner stripping 40 tonnes an hour at 'Milton Downs'.