And he is hoping to see those results replicated with canola put on the same wide row spacings this season.

Dan's main crop is hay, followed by wheat and barley, then chickpeas, beans, canola and triticale.

Farming with his wife Monica on 3200 hectares, they dedicate 2200ha to cropping. They also run 1400 breeding ewes.

Dan had the idea to move to wider row spacings after reading in the South Australian No-Till Farmers Association journal about the impressive results Victorian farmer Rob Ruwoldt had with wider rows.

"It seemed a pretty good idea and made sense, especially because beans are pretty susceptible to disease," he said.

Last season Dan sowed 36ha of Fiesta beans on 50cm spacings. The beans planted on 25cm spacings yielded 0.8 tonnes/ha, while the beans planted on 50cm spacings went to 1.5t/ha.

The crops were dry-sown at the same time, in April, with a sowing rate of 100 kilogram/ha, put out with 50kg of MAP.

"I wasn't expecting to get this result at all, I was absolutely shocked," Dan said.

"All year they actually looked as if they would be the worst crop. They weren't as tall as the beans planted on narrower spacings.

"But, right at the end of the season, when it came to reaping, because they were that little bit shorter they didn't get hit with the weather as badly as the crops planted on narrower spacings."

Dan said the benefits of wider row spacings included "more airflow and less disease and weed pressure".

He has planted 52ha of beans with wider row spacings this season.

Dan grew Clearfield hybrid canola 45Y77 for the first time last season, and was impressed by the results, with it yielding 1.5t/ha.

This year he planted 200ha of it, and is trialing 16ha on wider row spacings.

"Sowing on wider row spacings gives the plant more space to grow and more sunshine," he said.

Dan uses a DBS bar at seeding.

"This is the third year I've used the DBS bar and it has been fantastic," he said.

"With the seed placement, it has been spot-on – everything has come up really evenly."

* Extract from a full Cropping report in Stock Journal, July 30 issue.