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Others Say
The WASCA Wings invention has keep Bill Chapman busy for years thinking and perfecting the design. Many people working the land have nothing but praise for this marvelous invention. The following testimonial extracts have been given by people who have used the WASCA Wings ripper boot technique on their land.
Observations of the WASCA Wings by:
> Extract from “Central Queensland Edition “Rural Weekly”, 9 November 2007
> Tony and Julie Henderson, “Bannockburn”, Mornish
> Peter Williamson, “Florida”, Mt Larcome
> JS and JM Henderson, “Colodan”, Monto
Tony and Julie Henderson, “Bannockburn”, Mornish (via Rockhampton)
The Australian Primary Producer has faced and overcome many hardships over the last two decades, living on and working with the driest continent on the planet would have to be the ultimate challenge every one says you can’t change the weather so the challenge is to make better use of a very limited resource rain.
Long cycles of drought and high rainfall events have left Producers searching for more sustainable farming practices. For most of the last two decades I have observed Bill Chapman develop his WASCA Wings and his system of contour ripping using pondage banks. The whole idea of the Chapman method is to store precious water in the soil profile, changing rainfall run-off to ‘walk-off’. Bill’s system has the potential to produce amazing results from forest country.
WASCA Wings potential is not limited to the above system but is extremely effective in busting hard pans, re-growth control, reducing the need for cross-ripping in earth moving etc.
While other systems just scratch the surface I am convinced the Chapman method addresses the land degradation problem, leaving the land the better for your passing.
Peter Williamson, “Florida”, Mt Larcome
The concept of water retention is not new eg. dams, weirs, etc. but to take this further and hold water on the slopes presents enormous benefits for grazing enterprises and the environment.
Bill Chapman’s theories gained from years of earth work experience and drainage problems has made these benefits possible.
I am indeed fortunate to have been associated with Bill over the last two decades. Myself, a dry land dairy farmer, have no doubts as to the contribution this associated has made to my livelihood and more so to the land which seems to improve as years go by.
Bill’s work for me last year with the construction of more banks and using the latest WASCA Wings has further enhanced the earning capacity of my property.
Rainfall has been a scarce commodity in my area over the last few years and to hear the odd heavy fall and know you are catching it instills in one a feeling of contentment. The big plus in all of this is that the humus remains where it is most beneficial.
Improved pastures established on these areas grow without the use of fertilisers of any kind. Deep ripping [with WASCA Wings] I feel has contributed towards this, also the retention of all humus.
Bill, forever in your debt.
JS and JM Henderson, “Colodan”, Monto
Cattlemen and their families in the Burnett area are unlikely to forget the springtime of 1994. It was a truly dismal time. Death, dying and drought were all around us everyday.
Our pastures were - well - very dead. Domestic stock and whole life were perishing. Tough old ironbark trees, survivors of countless past droughts, died by the thousands, on ridge tops, to the delight of some landholders. Others, such as myself, were alarmed.. WASCA Wings - The Wonder Worker>>
It’s not that I was short of something to worry about, mind you, but these sick trees really ‘got’ to me. I rang a prominent city based botanist, a tree man of some standing, hoping to tap his knowledge.
MORE> Call Bill or Di on 0438-345524 OR 0407-345522
WASCA Wings - the Wonder Worker
Bill’s rescue package for worn out ridges is astonishingly well thought out. The WASCA [Wings] Boot for dozer tynes is The Key.
WASCA Boots are unbelievably tough. They can be gouged through boulders or stony slopes where the Cat dozer scrabbles for balance. They are also maneuverable in tight situations around breakaway gullies. WASCA Boots leave massive storm and deluge defying furrow and bed profiles, fetched precisely around the level of hillside. They are the very last word in counter-disaster treatment of worn out ridges. And I stress each rip must be tracked level!
Bill Chapman’s laser level is a battery powered, portable and tripod mounted affair. I quickly learnt to use it.
Bill Chapman’s banks are level. Pondage banks with topsoil put back on them, and sown. Their secret is that they are relatively short (stock tend not to walk over them). They contain sufficient volume of material so that once grassed they should last a half century or more.
In summary, the WASCA rescue package on our place has turned the most severely, degraded, bare and unproductive ridge top land into fattening country. Where the ironbarks died are now superbly protected and productive. Secure fencing and close management must now go with this new asset. Cell grazing, I feel will be the way to go. We use mains power electric fences around the WASCA land.
”Pasture Stands Test of Time”
(from Central Queensland Edition “Rural Weekly” Page 16, 9/11/07)
“MORNISH Landcare Group will hold its AGM and field day at Foresthome next week to inspect one of the most innovative pasture rejuvenation practices in the region.
From the air, it looks like an irrigated paddock, standing out green in thousands of acres of dry brown pasture. Mornish graziers Stewart and Glenda and Jack Jones Foresthome, invested heavily in an exciting pasture renovation technique 17 years ago, which continues to pay off.
The renovated pasture as well as contour banks improve the moisture hold capacity of the soil.
Stewart contracted well-known ‘dozer operator Bill Chapman to survey the steep forest paddocks of Foresthome, build level keyline type contours to manage overland flow, renovate with a deep ripper and plant a mix of improved pastures. He began in 1990 and completed more then 700 acres by 1994.
The deep ripping was carried out using a D6 and long ripper tynes with a WASCA Wing (water and soil conservation attachment). Improved pastures sown into the forest soils included seca and verano stylos, Aztec atro, win casia, buffel, katamborra Rhodes, Cunningham leucaena and Bisset creeping bluegrass.
The Mornish Landcare meeting and field day will start at 9am at Foresthome on Tuesday, November 13, 2007...”
MORE> Call Bill or Di on 0438-345524 OR 0407-345522
MORE> Call Bill or Di on 0438-345524 OR 0407-345522
MORE> Call Bill or Di on 0438-345524 OR 0407-345522
He had ‘no idea’, he said, why ‘my’ ironbarks were dying. It would take a dozen researchers twenty years to do a study. It may not be conclusive he warned. “Are you sure that you did not spray a herbicide under those trees, as that might affect them?” he asked. As I said, things were ‘dismal’ in the springtime of 1994
Worn Out Ridges
Had the gentlemen visited this region, perhaps he may have commented on the totality of the impact of 100 years of continuous grazing or these shallow red-brown basaltic clay loan soils. The ground cover remaining, consisted of yellow daisy burr. Tufts of wire/white spear grass, and a carpet of small burr or ‘farmers lice’ grass. Because of the ironbark, dieback we can guess at. Patches of exposed subsoil ran water like a roof - it seems likely that these hard pan soils are surely drier now than when those knobbly old ironbarks were saplings 100 years ago, pre-ring barking, ridge top soils must have had protective leaf litter. A full range of different native plants, and a top soil much richer in organic matter. Rain that fell must have soaked in better, and less run off meant nutrients stayed ‘up the ridge’, not down the creek!
To leave that country as it was in 1994 would be to lose it forever. To cut straight to the point, I engaged Bill Chapman.
LEGAL: © Bill Chapman 1998. All Rights Reserved.
This work is protect by the Copyright Act 1968. No part may be reproduced by any process without proper written permission from Bill Chapman.
The information contained on this site is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. All recommendations are made without any guarantee on the part of the author and/or contributors, who also disclaim any liability incurred in connection with the use of this information or specific details.
“Water and Soil Conservation Attachment”, referred to as WASCA Wings - conserves water and soil. WASCA Wings lays good foundations by saving water and improving pasture. We believe that Improved pasture = more PROFIT.