The Coggan family’s property, Enarra, is within a stone’s throw of the tiny township of Westmar. Its fund-raiser initiative was by way of thanks to Brisbane’s Prince Charles Hospital which performed a life-saving heart transplant for family patriarch John Coggan a few years ago.

Excitement has been building ever since the challenge was announced with the close-knit family quietly confident it could rise to the occasion.

“As long as there are no breakdowns, we’ll be right,” John Coggan said a few hours before the giant tractor and seeder rig was flagged away by scrutineers who were needed to verify the results.

For the record, the Coggan’s fine-tuned their Simplicity air seeder and Multi-Farming Systems planter, which spanned 36m (120ft), hitching them behind a 397kW (530hp) John Deere 9630T tracked tractor.

The world record attempt was flagged away to the shrill note of bagpipes with AgForce Grains president Lyndon Pfeffer acting as the chief scrutineer.

Assisted by JP and local bus driver, Jerry Lynis, the Department of Natural Resources and Water’s Dave Waters, the CSIRO’s Peter Carburry and the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries’ John Sheppard, leaving the ground covered during the attempt to be overseen by GPS technology belonging to Goondiwindi Communications’ Gary Turner.

The officialdom was needed to verify that the tractor/seeder combination didn’t just ‘blast’ its way across the property, haphazardly sowing seeds, rather that strict Guinness criteria demanding the planter be calibrated to sow 120 seeds/sq m were met.

With all the paperwork in order, Phillip Coggan, who was named Queensland Graingrower of the Year in 2005, climbed aboard the impressive tractor and seeding rig and activated the farm’s Beeline Arrow GPS navigation system a few moments before mid-day on Wednesday of last week. The rest, as they say, is history.

The first milestone occurred in the early hours of Thursday morning when John Coggan breezed past the existing world record. From then on in to the finishing line it was just a matter of seeing how far they could push not only the machinery but also their tired bodies.

“When they passed the 500ha mark at three minutes past one in the middle of the night, there was a lot of yahooing because the adrenalin was pumping at the thought that they were on the way to setting a new world record,” chief scrutineer, AgForce Grains president Lyndon Pfeffer said.

The total area sown by the near-new John Deere tractor was measured by a BeeLine GPS navigation system, according to Goondiwindi Communications’ Gary Turner.

The statistics involved in this ambitious venture required some pretty handy logistics because every three hours, stops were needed to top-up with seed and fertiliser. However, as down time was limited to about six minutes every three hours, the team was able to achieve an average sowing rate of about 38ha/hour.

John and Phillip Coggan acknowledged the part played by other members in the four-strong team, namely farm staff Les Bruce and Stephan Wall.

At the conclusion of the event John Coggan said he was “truly humbled” by the interest it had created – not only in Australia but around the world. Independent witness Jerry Lynis, who not only is a JP but is responsible for the local bus run, said the event had “well and truly” put the town of Westmar on the map.

Meanwhile, people can still donate to the Coggan’s Guinness World Record fundraiser at any Rabobank branch or cheques made out to the Prince Charles Hospital Foundation can be mailed to Rabobank, PO Box 1671, Toowoomba 4350.

Money can also be directly deposited into the Prince Charles Hospital Foundation bank account BSB - 633 000 Account - 121 857 106.