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Tony Kramer: Hi, I'm Tony Kramer, your host of the Agriculture Technology Podcast. I'm sitting down with agriculture technology and equipment experts to help you enhance your operation for today, tomorrow, and into the future. In this episode, I talk with Stephen Frahm about planting and seeding solutions in Australian agriculture. With that, let's dive into the show. I am very excited to partner up with our RDO Australia dealerships and talk a little bit about some of the unique things they have going on down in Australia. Before we get started, Stephen, why don't you introduce yourself, tell our listeners a little bit about who you are, where you come from, and how you got to where you are today?
Stephen Frahm: Hey, good day there, Tony. Really pleased to be here. As you said, my name's Stephen Frahm. I think my official title is a Business Development Manager Crop Care, but at the end of the day, I'm just the planter specialist. I've been involved with John Deere for 16 years, started down in what we call the pre-delivery shed, so delivering brand new pieces of equipment and getting those ready and getting them out the door. Very lucky and blessed to work my way up through the business to where I am today.
The last six or eight years, purely focused on all things planting. I guess here in Australia, we do have a lot of different crops and commodities, all the way from trees to cotton, vegetables to sugarcane. We seem to have a little bit of a grasp on all of those things, Tony.
Tony: Yes, you guys get to dabble in a little bit of everything. Australian agriculture, a lot of what you guys do is dry land. In the dry land, you guys have concerns or have to look at the moisture content and what you guys are doing for irrigation. Now, there's a lot of different ways you guys are doing that down in Australia, so let's talk a little bit about some of the ways Australian growers help conserve that moisture and do different things to make sure that they have adequate moisture for their crops.
Stephen: Yes. Sure. I guess for the sake of the podcast, Tony, we might just concentrate on a crop like corn or cotton. I guess if we delve into the sugarcane thing, that could be a whole episode on its own. I don't think I've seen one sugarcane farmer yet in Australia that agrees on row spacing. We'll keep that one a bit simple. I guess in our irrigated country, we are very blessed here in Australia. We do have some fantastic irrigation schemes. We certainly don't have a lot of them. As you said, a majority of our country is dry land farming.
In the irrigated areas, we probably traditionally run a 1-meter row spacing or 40 inch. A lot of that's based around the machinery, particularly a cotton picker. Any of our large cotton picker areas or cotton-growing areas, they want that picker to come in on that 1-meter spacing. Then I guess our farmers continue with that 1-meter spacing for, say, corn, or, while we're on those 1-meter spacings or maybe in 1-meter beds in irrigation, we might then plant 2 50-centimeter rows of, say, a wheat or a winter crop.
That's 1-meter spacing. In our irrigation, we do run some 60-inch stuff or 1.5 meter. We do have some 30-inch stuff and what we call single skip. When we get into a dry land situation, a lot of our growers would be on possibly 60-inch or 1.5 meter. There is some single skip, so one in and one out. When we speak about single skip, we are planting a single row and then skipping a row. That traditionally gives us about 66% of our area planted. Obviously all around our conservation of moisture or having water ready when we need it the most time, which is critical times like flowering or stuff.
In our dry land, we do, as I said, run 60 inch. We also may run a double skip configuration. That would give us a 50% of our area planted. We also have a crazy configuration called super single, which would then only give us 33% of area planted. As we've touched on, mate, all of that is all about moisture conservation and getting moisture to that plant when it needs it the most.
Tony: In all those different practices you were talking about, do you guys see that happening? Say the single skip practice, does that happen generally in one geographical area or do you see all of these different practices happening across all of Australian agriculture?
Stephen: Yes, you could probably say that. We have what? 22 ag branches scattered around Australia, predominantly on the East Coast of Australia. In those areas, we would see some of those configurations being used across that whole geographic area, for sure.
Tony: Not necessarily single skip being used in the southeast corner and double skip up in the northeast corner. It's scattered all throughout then.
Stephen: Yes, correct. I guess the interesting one there is we also now have cotton and crops growing up in what we call the Northern Territory, up in the far north. They run on 1-meter row spacing, but because they're a rain-grown crop, they're very lucky to get that rain. When we talk about the wet season in the Northern Territory, we might get up to 1.5 meters of rain in crop for that wet season, which traditionally starts in December. They are probably the exception of our dryland farmers because they have so much in crop rain.
Tony: Man, that's a lot to think about. I know most of the stuff in the United States, we're 30-inch row spacing or we're-- We get a little bit wider in some of the vegetable crops and sometimes a lot narrower in some of the produce crops, but you guys are doing some very unique things with the skip passes or the single skip, double skip type practices. It's all about the water conservation, trying to make sure we have enough moisture to produce the crops that we need.
Another thing that I think comes into this is something that you guys have adopted. We see it a little bit here and there within the United States, but I wouldn't necessarily say it's mainstream. You guys have gone down the path or a lot of growers in Australia have gone down the path of controlled traffic. Talk a little bit about the importance in Australian agriculture and the different crops that you guys grow, talk about the importance of controlled traffic and how some of our John Deere solutions are helping with that.
Stephen: We would find controlled traffic probably across 80 to 90% of our growing area of farmers practicing controlled traffic. It's very regimented type practice here in Australia. I know sometimes in the US you guys may have controlled traffic, but you're happy to wander off those lines for some other operations in the field. I know that we've been to places to even drive a light vehicle off a controlled traffic line is pretty close to getting the sack or getting yelled at for sure.
We're very regimented on our controlled traffic. The big thing is, we have a lot of compaction issues. By keeping it controlled traffic, we keep that compaction to a minimum across the fields. I guess we don't have the snow or anything like you guys do to compensate for some of those compaction problems. That's why it's very important to us. In the John Deere world, we tend to run everything in either 12, 24, or 36-meter sets across our field.
Traditionally our planters are probably always a 12-meter planter. The linkage type planters. I know you guys in the States use a lot of drawn planters. We try and run everything in those configurations. I guess with John Deere, some of the benefits there would be, say, Active Implement Guidance. We're steering those machines on those wheel tracks, particularly if we are running a 36-meter planter or a 24-meter planter, we're wanting everything to run on those controlled traffic lines. Controlled traffic, like I said, is very close to a religion here in Australia, and it can't be messed with, Tony, for sure.
Tony: I think about controlled traffic and what some growers do in the United States, that they may have controlled traffic through one growing season where they can put-- generally speaking, we can put the planter and the sprayer on the same traffic lines. Down in Australia, are you guys following through with these controlled traffic lines year over year, or do they move after a year?
Stephen: No, those controlled traffic lines are there. I'm sure that if you talk to some of our older type growers, those lines may have never shifted for 10, 15, or 20-plus years. The controlled traffic lines may get renovated every now and then. When we speak about that, if we've had a bit of a wet year, and those controlled traffic lines have been rutted up with our heavy cotton pickers or our chaser bins, what we call a chaser bin or anything, they do renovate them. They give them a bit of a working up, tickle them back up, and flatten them out, but those compaction lines are still there and will not move, for sure.
Tony: Okay, that's very interesting. That, like I said, sometimes, season to season, guys will keep controlled traffic. I would imagine because of what you guys are doing with controlled traffic, it plays quite a major role in implement size and width across an entire farm, making sure that all of their seasonal operations that they're doing, obviously have to line up with these controlled traffic lines.
Stephen: 100%. Yes. That's where we say all our equipment must be a configuration of that controlled traffic line. Probably one of our most traditional controlled traffic lines would be 12 meters or 40 feet. We work everything around that. Even when we're talking about equipment, we tend not to plant on those controlled traffic lines, as you can appreciate. Sometimes we'll even shift row spacings a little bit narrower so we do have some room around that controlled traffic line that we're not putting seed or inputs that are probably never going to be of any yield benefit because of that.
Tony: Perfect segue into my next question. With these controlled traffic lines and the size of implements that you guys are utilizing in Australian agriculture, you guys from time to time have to go down this path of finding unique equipment builds or unique equipment modifications. Let's talk a little bit about some of the unique modifications that RDO Australia has come across in order to keep customers on what they're doing with controlled traffic and equipment spacing.
Stephen: Yes. Sure. I guess what we call custom build is figures a large part of our business. It's probably one of the main reasons that I'm still involved in and love what I do because building those one-off solutions, they certainly may be tedious or annoying, but to see that the result in the field is very rewarding. We certainly do have a lot of custom builds and some of that is because the solution from John Deere may not be perfect.
Obviously a lot of loyal John Deere growers in Australia, so they still want to have that John Deere equipment, but we just have to maybe change that slightly to accommodate controlled traffic or we may have to change the configuration slightly or use some John Deere equipment and technology on what we call a custom build bar. The bar may be built locally here in Australia, but we're very lucky to fit John Deere equipment or technology to it. I guess that's what we do. We've probably been known for that throughout the years that we've been around and we certainly still get a lot of growers coming back to us for those custom solutions.
Tony: I know leading up to recording this podcast another thing you guys talked about that opened some of the doors for some custom solutions was with the John Deere Monosem collaboration or acquisition. Whether it be your broccoli growers or your peanut growers, you guys have found success in offering some of the Monosem solutions as well, correct?
Stephen: Yes. Sure. We're very lucky that we've had a relationship with Monosem for probably nearly 10 years now. I think we would be the only John Deere dealer in Australia that has that Monosem direct account. Look, we've been very lucky. Anyone that looks at the Monosem website, I guess scattered across the front of it is custom-built planters. That's exactly what they do. Boy gee, over the 10 years, we've had some crazy requests. I don't think we've turned one down yet. Like you said, we've had a grower that bought a planter that he wanted to plant 6 rows of broccoli and then plant 12 rows of corn. That's what we've done.
We've done a lot of work in vegetables with Monosem, a lot of custom work in broadacre with Monosem, whether it be a very large machine, 36 rows or just a 12 row machine. Very lucky to have the Monosem brand in our stable, providing some fantastic solutions and flexibility with their machines, for sure.
Tony: That is one thing I am also learning here in the United States. It's becoming a little more in tune with our Southwest agriculture region down in Arizona, Southern Arizona, Southern California, is that, yes, the Monosem solutions and what we can offer customers is very unique as to what they need for their cropping system. Great to hear that you guys can also take advantage of that solution in Australia.
Stephen: Yes, very lucky. I guess now with Monosem being very partnered with John Deere, they're offering John Deere software on the Monosem machines like SeedStar 4 in that. It gives your grower some commonality through their equipment.
Tony: Yes, definitely. Another thing we're working on in the States is getting that SeedStar 2 solution onto the Monosem planters for more visibility, getting that data into the Operations Center, and growing the digital solutions on how collecting that data in crops that maybe we hadn't collected that data in the past. Great solution from Monosem and John Deere together.
Stephen: Yes, agree. Couldn't agree more, Tony.
Tony: Another thing I wanted to touch on is, of course, we talked about some of the custom builds, the one-off solutions, we talked about utilizing Monosem as a solution, but the other thing that you guys are starting to see down in Australia is some of the other John Deere offerings or John Deere solutions. Talk to us a little bit about some of the SurePoint stuff that you guys are starting to get into as well as the liquid application. At the time of planting, the unique liquid application you guys have down there.
Stephen: Yes. Sure. We're very lucky to have Nate Chance from SurePoint Ag visit us in Australia early this year. We certainly interacted with a lot of growers and gave Nate a big scope of what's happening here in Australia. With the SurePoint offering, obviously, the RFX bidirectional downforce, a lot of our Australian growers are looking for that bidirectional downforce on their planters. We traditionally plant a lot of dry country or a lot of shallow country and tend to water up, so the customers are looking for the lightest footprint possible to get that seed into the ground. RFX bidirectional, very happy with that.
The GFX hydraulic row cleaners, I guess anyone that's owned a set of trash whippers or row cleaners before, they're sometimes quite annoying. You always seem to be adjusting them and not in the right spot at the right time, so just being able to adjust those row cleaners from the cab of the tractor is a real game-changer. It's made it really, really great. Even the new MVX electric meter that the guys from SurePoint are playing around with, it ties the story together.
It's a Monosem meter, so another connection there. SurePoint and John Deere have come together to create this electric meter that we can retrofit to a lot of planting units, particularly here in Australia, where John Deere just didn't have the perfect offering for it and now we do, so really excited about that. Another new product we're just starting to play around with is the liquid row monitoring.
We use a lot of liquids in planting and one of our customers came to us this year and said he found some striping in his corn crop and found out that a couple of the rows weren't delivering the right amount of liquid per row. With the Sentinel liquid row monitoring, we can now see exactly row by row what's happening across that machine. Very exciting times ahead for SurePoint Ag and potentially RDO in Australia, for sure.
Tony: That's great. I know we have also seen success with the GFX row cleaners. You bring up the MVX electric meters, very excited about that announcement to see what comes of that with SurePoint Ag, Monosem, John Deere, and all those connections there. Really fun times in agriculture, in planting specifically. That's really cool. The last one is bringing it back home, the John Deere solutions. You guys have started to see some great success with the John Deere precision upgrade kits in the world of planting and seeding. Tell us a little bit about how John Deere offering these precision upgrade kits has opened the door for some of your growers in Australia.
Stephen: The John Deere upgrade kits or perks, as John Deere call them, has just been a huge benefit for us, a huge game changer. Really lucky to have those kits available. I think that they're reasonably priced. I guess it gives us a flexibility of either A, just retrofitting a customer up to the latest and greatest technology in electric drive and seed stuff or technology. That could be just a simple 12-row customer or an 8-row customer on 1-meter spacing.
Taking it to the next level, as we have to in Australia, we always seem to push the boundaries. We've got some of those kits now out on 1.5 meters, so some really nice 8-row Stack-Fold gear on 1.5-meter spacings looking like they were from the John Deere factory though, looking really schmick. We've got even a couple running around on 2-meter row spacing. Very good, very reliable. We seem to be getting some really good service life out of those kits.
They are a bit daunting when the customers get them. I think there's up to 20 pallets of equipment. There's a lot to wade through there, but once the guys get into it, they can see that it's coming together and we've had some good feedback from those machines in the field and been very lucky with that. I guess coming with the perks is probably the liquid-type application, so the ExactRate and ExactShot.
We're seeing that as a bit of a feature here in Australia. ExactRate, I guess as it says, obviously that continuous application of liquid down the row and the ability to have that shut off as the machine crosses over a headland or something. ExactShot, I think our first machine is here in Australia at the moment and that'll be available soon. They're talking huge chemical savings. I think that's a real game-changer.
For us here in Australia, we just reduce our inputs, whether that be seed, fertilizer, maybe some man hours, or some fuel. We've got to get into that. I guess that ties into autonomy, Operation Center, and all of those things. We're getting some really good records and history of what's happening with our product in the field, for sure.
Tony: Sometimes those custom builds or whatever you may need for your operation are great but sometimes it's nice just to have that Deere-on-Deere solution with that precision upgrade kit if it fits your operation and what you need it to do. The last thing, you guys are going to get your hands on the new C-Series air cart. Tell us a little bit about your excitement for that.
Stephen: Yes, mate, you might have to come down and show me how to use it but it looks very exciting. We've only had it released internally, I guess. It hasn't made any great public appearances. Our air cart arrives in January and we're getting that out in the field from February all the way through to probably May/June in different locations through the RDO network.
The thing that excites me I guess is the ability for the Section Control, whether that be per primary tower, the ability to do prescription mapping based on the 56-volt electric drive motors, the on-board scales to get our accuracy to get our inputs correct, and probably the EZCal to get those calibrations done correctly. Everything we're talking about there is saving on inputs or getting them perfect. Obviously, all that data flowing up to op center, we're going to create some maps and create some really good maps and information out of that, so, yes, really looking forward to the C-Series cart and hope I can work out how to use it.
Tony: Stephen, I just want to thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to sit down and chat with me about planting and seeding solutions down there in Australia. Really hoping, fingers crossed, maybe I will have to come show you how to use that C-Series air cart. I'd love to get down there and experience Australian agriculture hands-on in the soil down there. Thanks again for doing this, Stephen. I appreciate your help.
Stephen: Thanks very much for having me, mate, and look forward. Anytime you want to come to Australia, there's always a room here and we'll look after you, for sure. Thanks, Tony.
Tony: Please take a moment to subscribe to this podcast if you haven't already. You can subscribe to the show on the many different podcasting apps that we're streaming this out to such as Apple, Google, Spotify as well as many others. While you're out there drop us a review. We'd love to hear what you think about the show. Lastly, make sure to follow RDO Equipment Company on Facebook, Instagram, and X, and also catch our latest videos on YouTube. You can also follow me on X @RDOTonyK.
