Sunflowers at Pine Ridge.

Now in their 4th big year.

In the past issues we've seen the outstanding results achieved by Nick & Prue Lee on 'Bindaree', their Pine Ridge, NSW property. This season we decided to get in early and pick up some tips as their next crop of sunflowers went into the ground. As you can see below, Nick was pumping R.U.M. Liquid Plant Food into his spray tank when we arrived on the Liverpool Plains. Because pictures of sowing rigs always generate phone calls from interested farmers, we asked Nick to describe his 'sunflower' set up.

"Robert Magery had helped me set up my Rogro Groundhound No-till planter for 30-inch rows," Nick explained. "We will be putting on 3L/ha R.U.M. with our 1000L water tank, and 100kg.ha of urea through the air seeder. We have what is called the 'Rottweiler' configuration which distributes the fertiliser off-set to the sowing boot. Then, when the sunflower seed goes in, the R.U.M. is injected directly behind the sowing boot."

Nick is putting in 200ha of Hysun 45 variety sunflowers. The paddock was previously sown to sorghum.

"This time we've cut fertiliser out for 2 ha to get a comparison. Also it's the first time that we've direct-injected the R.U.M. whereas previously we'd used it as a foliar application", Nick said.

"The nozzles are T-Jet 002's which allow us a groundspeed of 10km/h in this kind of country."

R.U.M. tip #23

When pumping R.U.M. from large drums or containers, always flush the whole system with clean water before and after use.

Before use because: unknown residues can be left in the pump chamber or hose e.g. fuel, oils, herbicides.

After use because: undiluted R.U.M. can crystallise if left in small amounts for long periods.

Speaking of R.U.M.

At a recent seminar convened by R.U.M. distributor Alan Wallin in Dalby, QLD, local farmers had the chance to ask the hard questions. On hand to answer were R.U.M. creator Choc Irwin, Peter Irwin and Alan's farming partner Paul Buchanan. A farm walk followed Alan's property at Bellfields South.