Colin Cail talks about running a mixed farming operation & wind row burning.
Colin and Ruth along with sons Mike, James and Darren Cail run a mixed farming operation at Wubin, roughly 3.5 hrs north east of Perth. The translation of their property name “BILLENYA” is “the place of satisfaction”, also interpreted as “place of satisfaction sometimes” according to Colin.
Reasons for burning with ACCUFIRE?
A: Narrow Windrow Burning is the primary driver in our Integrated Weed Management Strategy (IWM).
B: Heavy stubble loads require a strategic burn.
C: The operation of burning windrows is cheap.
D: Areas of weed blowouts can be effectively clean burnt whilst still being contained by outer boundaries of windrows.
Why Windrow Burning?
We had over 5000ha of windrows grazed by the sheep flock this year. There’s not a lot of extra work burning all those windrows once the sheep have grazed them. Fire is suppressed from burning between the windrows because of the grazing, and the grazing of the cereal stubbles makes for a safer paddock setup to burn.
What are your thoughts on ACCUFIRE?
“We purchased our first unit in 2009 and a second unit this year 2019. They’re easy to setup and make it easy to ignite large areas fast. By estimation it takes 10 burning days to ignite the windrows over 5000ha. That’s in a time span over about 6 weeks. We didn’t change the gas cylinders over that duration of 6 weeks, the 9kg gas (cylinder) last for ages. This year was the first time a part has been required on the older unit (a replacement burner). Next year we’ll replace the gas hose and regulator. They’re pretty good.”
