Twin fluid nozzle widens application windows on large UK farm

G.H Parker farms more than 2,000ha, near Grimsby, in Northeast Lincolnshire in England. Here the land is split into two distinct blocks. Combinable crops are grown further from the coast on about 1,400ha of heavier clay soils, which are down to winter crops on a five year rotation, producing wheat, barley and oilseed rape.

A further 600ha of finer soils are cropped with high value produce, vining peas, broccoli and sugar beet, rotated with wheat. With such a wide range in crops and the coastal weather, the farm needs a sprayer that could take on everything and work with high output, which brought it to the door of Agrifac.

G.H Parker has been working on 48m tramlines for a number of years using an 48m Agrifac Condor, new in 2017 and also equipped with HighTechAir.

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Farm manager Billy Wrisdale explains the farm’s reason for 48m tramlines. “We run a semi-controlled traffic system here and don’t cultivate the tramlines at all, we only level the surface. This allows us to travel comfortably with the sprayer when conditions are marginal, at 48m.”

Fewer wheelings from the wider tramlines produces a 20ha gain in harvestable crop over a 24m system on the same land.

For full disclosure the Vanguard is Agrifac’s pre-production machine, G.H Parker are appraising it for the firm. Seasoned operator, Graham Pennell, is well qualified to give his feedback, with 45 years of spraying under his belt, and primary operator of the 2017 Condor since it arrived.

The latest machine is a step up in tank capacity to 6,000 litres. The booms are the most notable change, from a four to three sections, this does of course leave more boom to account for when folded, most of the extra length is to the rear, but it doesn’t present any problems.

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Operator background

Graham Pennell covers about 20,000ha/yr with an Agrifac Vanguard, equipped with HighTechAir, which joins a current Agrifac Condor with the same system.

With its 48m wide boom and HighTechAir, the Vanguard is a perfect fit for G.H Parker set-up. Although the air-assist is a costly addition to the spec sheet, it has proven itself time and time again on the farm – capable of turning a marginal spray day into a comfortable one.

“It’s really easy to use, literally a push of a button and you can change the coarseness of the droplets, without nozzle changes,” explains its operator, Graham Pennell.

But it’s the versatility that makes the system invaluable to the farm, adds farm manager, Billy Wrisdale. “We can be spraying brassicas at 200l/ha in the morning and sugar beet at 80l/ha in the afternoon, and be back on cereals at 100l/ha, without adjustments, a huge time saver with 96 nozzles.”

HighTechAir works well for the brassica spray applications, allowing the operator to create a fine mist of small droplets at 200L/ha. “The main pests in brassicas tend to be aphids that are under the leaves, we can get a good pattern of fine droplets that swirl around the plants and get to where the product needs to be,” Billy continues.

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What is HighTechAir?

HighTechAir is a ‘twin fluid’ nozzle system that mixes air and liquid. Both components can be adjusted independently and on-the-move to produce and maintain the set droplet size by changing the air and liquid flow and pressure.

This enables operators to use the single nozzle to set a wide range of droplet sizes – fine, medium, coarse etc. At the same time the system compensates for speed changes by automatically adjusting the pressure to maintain a constant, uniform droplet size.

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Keeping the booms under control

Graham is well acquainted with the spray application side of the machine, but one of the standout features of the Vanguard in his opinion is the radar controlled boom levelling system, StrictHeightPlus rather than an acoustic sensor. The Agrifac is now looking, rather than listening.

This has been a resounding success, with Graham praising the efficacy of the system: “The boom levelling is very good, we’re usually working at 12km/h and it does a brilliant job – the best I’ve used.”

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How much work can the Agrifac do in a day, and in a year?

The usual routine is to fill at the yard first thing, then a purpose-built 12,000 litre capacity bowser brings water and product to the field.

The farm is mostly in blocks, where the sprayer can move to several fields at a time without folding up, this maintains high productivity, making 300ha spraying days normal practice.