LET THE SEEDING BEGIN
By early May the two tractors, both hauling culti-trashes, had done a few
rounds on a test paddock and were ready to go. It was time to get the
spray contractors in. They agreed to arrive on a Thursday, so Wednesday
was spent moving sheep out of the paddocks that were to be sprayed.
Many of the ewes had dropped their lambs earlier than anticipated and
we spent a slow day walking behind scattered flocks, sometimes carrying
the newborns too wobbly to travel, to get them out of harm’s way.
Bill drove the truck that would carry both the seed – in this case lupins
– and the fertiliser out to the paddocks that were being seeded. In the
second week of May there was a perfect window for planting after good,
soaking rain and days of sunshine. The soil had dried out enough so
you didn’t feel that the plough discs were just transplanting weeds, yet
wasn’t so dry that you were exposing the soil to destructive sunlight and
wind.
For those of us who care about such things, it was also a perfect time to
plant in the lunar cycle.
ON THE TRACTOR
I had got the hang of the tractor when we had ploughed a paddock
before seeding. I sat in one gear and moved ahead at about 2000 revs
with a hand on the lever that lifts or lowers the discs in the ground. I kept
an eye on the culti-trash, watching the window that showed the level of
the seed in the bin, making sure the stuff was dropping, and checking
for odd furrows in the wake left behind. A rock stuck in the plough discs
41