GARRY Whibley recently made the decision to switch to no-till planting.
The decision to upgrade his gear came after many conversations with neighbours and friends, who had grown successful crops in drier than normal conditions.
Mr Whibley, who runs the 2000-hectare "Copperfield", Crooble, said he listened and observed what worked for them, and from that went with a list of specifications to Boss Engineering in Inverell.
There they made him a 12-metre Supa-Flex planter frame with TX65 row units on 375 millimetre spacings and a CQX90 air seeder.
"Anything no-till really stood out to me and after doing my research I wanted mine to be made to my own specifications," Mr Whibley said.
"I wanted to combat wheel track problems and control seed depth better."
The planter can be set up with either with a tyne or precision double disk shanks.
The tyne spacings are 375mm and are attached to a 12m bar frame which is super flexible by design which allows the frame to follow undulations in the field.
"Where I live there's a lot of contours, so the flexible bar helps with going over them while maintaining even sowing depth," he said.
"As well as that each row has a parallelogram setup, so it's independent of each and every other one. That's another depth control feature which I like."
He said for winter crop planting he'll be using the precision double disc position option to achieve a 50mm depth, but he has the flexibility to go moisture seeking when the need arises.
"When I sow my chickpeas I'll use the tyne unit which can go down to 150mm," he said.
"I can take the double discs out and slide in the tynes, it's very easy to do."
Another feature he liked about the frame was its floating pull.
This works in conjunction with the flexible frame to ensure seed depth consistency.
The air seeder Mr Whibley purchased has a 9000 litre capacity.
It is a two bin box and the metering unit is hydraulically driven which he said made for easy calibration and rates changes.
"It's adaptable to variable rate sowing and fertiliser application too, which with other systems you can't do," he said.
The machine's auger is hydraulically operated and driven, which suits Mr Whibley who carries a back injury.
He purchased both machines last June, and has used it to spread urea but is yet to try it with seed.
Come April, he will sow about 800 hectares of wheat and the same of barley.
He will plant sorghum as a summer crop.
"The machine can be lifted up and set up on 1.2m spacings for a summer crop," he said.
At the time of purchase, Mr Whibley was eligible to receive the federal government's conservation tillage refundable tax offset.
The offset, which was introduced as part of the Clean Energy Future Plan, was repealed in June 2014 and is now only available to producers who purchased and installed their equipment between July 1, 2012, and June 30, 2014, if all other eligibility requirements are met.
"The rebate was a big determining factor in us purchasing the machine because it offered a 15 per cent discount. In these types of years any offset helps," he said.