Woorndoo farmer David Jamieson has one of just two Vaderstad Top Down cultivators in the country and believes they will be a good fit in post-harvest stubble management through his region.

The principle behind the Top Down unit is that it includes four operations in the one pass.

The front discs chop up the stubble and incorporate it in the upper layer of the soil.

The second section of the machine - a row of tynes - then break up the soil, before it is smoothed by a set of rear discs.

Finally, a row of steel rings act as a roller, with the aim of getting soil-seed contact for volunteer weeds, so there is a quick germination should there be suitable rain.

Mr Jamieson said he saw the machine having a big role through the south-west of the State, where heavy stubbles frequently mean that direct drilling into standing stubbles is impossible.

“At the moment, the only options are either to mulch or to put a match in it.”

Extract of report to appear in Stock & Land, December 18.