The Stories of the Early Days 

Adoption of no-till in Australia is believed to began around the 1960s. Many believe Garry and Darryl Hine of Wellstead, Western Australia, to be Australia’s first no-tillers in WA. The original family operation included 420 acres of owned ground and 300 acres of rented land, along with sheep and beef cattle. Western Australia has a Mediterranean climate that includes wet winters and extremely hot, dry summers. In the 1960s before modern herbicides were widespread, weed control largely relied on tillage (mechanical churning of soil).

In 1963, the Hine’s order of Paraquat (Gramoxone) arrived and they sprayed the fields and seeded perennial ryegrass for the first time. They decided to no-till because tillage encouraged the germination of annual ryegrass, which was considered a weed at the time for its persistence and dominance, when it came to pure seed production. It became an experiment to determine if sowing perennial ryegrass directly into pasture land would keep the annual ryegrass from germinating. It worked. Hine was able to eliminate the more expensive and time-consuming option of tillage, grazing those fields for up to 3 years to choke out the annual ryegrass. Guided by their father, Garry and Darryl Hine, propelled the no-till movement forward in Western Australia during the 1970s and early 1980s. 

An excerpt about the Hine family from “Ditching the Plough – A social history on how Western Australian farmers started a revolution in their paddocks that gave us modern farming” by Jo Fulwood (2021).

“An avid reader of Readers Digest, Jack Hine had been following the commentary over Plowman’s Folly, (in fact had ordered his own copy of the book) and had already developed an interest in reducing cultivation when he stumbled across an advertisement in this English magazine, not intended for the Australia market, describing a newly released chemical with an active ingredient called paraquat. The brand name of the chemical was Gramoxone®, owned by the chemical company Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). The advertisement in this English magazine possibly would have been targeting the English horticulture industry, but grain grower Jack could see the potential opportunities for his certified seed business, even from half a world away. Since this wonder chemical was phytotoxic or poisonous to plants, it could therefore kill all plant material it touched, with no residue effect on a subsequent crop. The ramifications of this were not lost on Jack. He could see the huge opportunities for his business if he could kill all the weeds in the paddock before planting a crop. Not only would the subsequent crop be free of weeds, but he would be able to achieve a clean crop without cultivating the soil and waiting for a germination, all in one season. 

Jack sent a letter to ICI in the United Kingdom, enclosing a cheque, and a 60-litre drum of Gramoxone® arrived on his farm ready to be used for the 1963 cropping season. Jack and his sons used this drum of chemical to spray out the weeds on a paddock, replacing the need to cultivate the soil many times over. They planted their crop of Victorian perennial ryegrass, using a recently purchased Connor Shea disc (or sod) seeder to drill the seed into the paddock without the need for extensive cultivation across the paddock.
Garry says the results from this very first crop were positive, with the main visual response being the massive difference in crop establishment. “We would have had three or four times as much seed germinate as what we would have if we’d ploughed and seeded it.” (Garry Hine, personal communication, 26 February 2021). Following this large germination increase, yield results also increased. It was a win-win situation and the Hines had made the first move in what was to become one of the most significant systems changes in Australia agricultural history.”

Read more: https://researchportal.murdoch.edu.au/esploro/outputs/graduate/Ditching-the-Plough-A-social-history/991005540146607891

Paraquat dichloride is the active ingredient of one of the oldest and most widely used herbicides in the world. It
started to be produced industrially in the UK in 1961 by Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) and became commercially available in 1962 under the commercial brand Gramoxone.

An excerpt from ‘ICI, Sprayseed and the W.A. Department of Agriculture’ Report by Geoff Pearce

“Two ICI herbicides, Diquat & Paraquat were registered in the 1960’s for the control of annual broad leaved weeds and grasses. These two compounds had been under test for several years in other countries to kill young weeds in cropping situations. They mixed Diquat with Paraquat and produced a product they called Sprayseed. In order to establish a commercial market in 1971-72 they appointed
field officers to visit selected farmers to persuade them to plant a whole paddock using the ICI Sprayseed System. With great excitement the “Spray-seeding” concept was launched in October 1969 at Northam.

The Department of Agriculture was quite justified in the 1970’s not to endorse ICI’s marketing scheme to replace cultivation with a herbicide spray. There were no experimental results to support such a change. Meanwhile field officers trained by ICI very quickly gained experience to advise farmers and organise field days to publicise the good results being obtained. Farmers like to experiment themselves and so the interest in minimum tillage cropping grew in popularity. 

In 1975,  ICI decided to try and win the support of government researchers throughout Australia in promoting the new planting techniques. This was done by inviting them to join a tour organised by ICI to visit Research Centres in the UK, USA & Canada to inspect work being done on reduced tillage.”

Read more: https://library.dpird.wa.gov.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1043&context=pubns

In 1991, Darryl’s pursuit of innovation took him across the globe to K-HART Industries in Saskatchewan, Canada. There, he unearthed a
game-changing discovery: rugged, dependable double-disc seeding equipment. Excited by the potential of this new technology, he imported one to trial at Fheo. The results were nothing short of remarkable, with improved germination and yields that exceeded expectations. The discovery of Kim Hartman’s machinery (K-Hart) saw the brothers introduce the no-till machinery into their own farming landscape and inevitably become the machinery dealers for the Southern Hemisphere. Word quickly spread, and neighboring farmers were eager to embrace the new imported equipment. The relationships forged during those early days have endured for over two decades, a testament to the trust and confidence placed in our products and services.