R.U.M. loves a punter

Out Dunedoo way, Brian Bowman, 'Shingle Hut', is looked on as a bit of a risk taker.
In the middle of the drought he's buying cattle.
In the middle of the drought he's planting a summer crop of sorghum.
No centre-pivots. No flood irrigation.
What's the man doing?
Well, he's doing quite well thank you.
And's he's spraying a fair bit of R.U.M. around,
Both his sorghum and lucerne crops get the treatment and the results speak for themselves.
After the good rains of early 2002, Brian started his preparation with 5L/ha R.U.M. applied to sorghum and barley stubble and ploughed in with an offset disc.
Then, 10 months later, in mid-December on little rain, Brian planted his 'Buster' sorghum with 5L/ha R.U.M. and a precision planter.
In early January another 5L/ha went on as a foliar spray to encourage the roots to penetrate into the moisture profile.
Now, with 4.5 inches of rain so far and a total of 15L/ha R.U.M., the crop is looking clean and vigorous with excellent head development.
"We've also just baled 40 tonnes from a 30 acre block of 'Pioneer' lucerne that had 5L/ha R.U.M. on it... and that was the third cut", Brian said. "Probably should've been 4 cuts but I didn't have time to put the R.U.M. on."
Peter Irwin, Beaulieu R.U.M. Managing Director, promptly offered to spray it for him!

R.U.M... in the very worst of times

Most farmers pray for a good start to a season and then hope for the best return.
But in SA, near Maitland, we found a farmer whose 2002 pea crop provided good returns in a year when any return was welcome.
With his Parafield peas yielding a 2.5 tonnes/ha crop, Darren Stock, 'Dundee', was more than happy with the finish of the season.
Sowing commenced in late June with Darren putting out his glyphosate knockdown with 3L/ha R.U.M. in the tank-mix.
The next day, he sowed his peas into heavy loam soil with a good moisture profile.
The conventional fertiliser was 50kg/ha grain-legume super + 2% Zinc.
Darren recalled, "I sowed the peas pretty thick into barley stubble.. .the podded up really well and never looked back. We'd had over 7.5 inches of rain from May to July so the crop raced ahead. But from August to November it was just showery."
Seven weeks after sowing, the peas were sprayed with some Fusion grass herbicide and a further 3L/ha R.U.M. A dressing of insecticide/fungicide and 1L/ha R.U.M. in October completed the spraying programme.
After a bit of nail-biting at the drought conditions, Darren took the crop off at an average 12 bags/acre, with just 11 inches of rain for the growing season. (By comparison, the previous wet year yielded 18 bags/acre).
Now entering his fourth season as a R.U.M. user, Darren has halved the amount of super he'd applied in previous years - and his soil's health 'has never been better'.