Typically row crop sprayers are used in raised bed cropping where crop clearance is essential. The raised bed is about 150 to 200 mm high leaving wheel furrows on each side in which to drive the tractor and sprayer.
Raised bed agriculture provides excellent drainage and a better soil structure for healthy plant growth, however you loose 150 to 200 mm of sprayer under axle clearance before you start. Until now there hasn’t been a commercially viable row crop sprayer available and growers have had to build their own.
James Dellios from J Dellios & Co Farms grows broccoli and cauliflower on their 90 acre property in Werribee South, VIC.
‘Most of the growers down here use trailed sprayers with front mount booms but they are component built, home made and have a lot of limitations’, said James.
‘When our local HARDI dealer Barry Willing from Spraycare told me about the new HARDI row crop sprayer just released, I was very interested because we were in the process of considering our options anyway’, he explained. ’We didn’t want a special one-off build where parts, service and support would be hard to get. We wanted a factory built solution that would be backed up by a manufacturer.’
James decision to purchase a new HARDI RANGER Row Crop sprayer surprised some of his peers earlier this year and has attracted a lot of neighbouring interest since.
When Barry from Spraycare and David Soderstrom from Hardi Australia organised a demo on the farm for James, he knew it was the machine for him.
‘The under chassis crop clearance on the RANGER Row Crop is fantastic! The 46’ tyres just float across our wet ground and there is less compaction due to the larger rolling radius of the tyres’. said James
‘We took the 12 meter HYS rear mount boom option and the performance is second to none. It delivers better results then I could have imagined!’ he said. James has improved his spraying programs significantly with less fill ups and less down time. ‘We get excellent performance our RANGER and top support from our local dealer Barry’, James concluded.
The Ranger Row Crop is available in a 2500L tank capacity and also has a wide range of Booms ranging from 15-21 meters and is also able to be fitted with the HARDI Twin Stream Air boom. For further information on the Ranger Row Crop please contact Hardi Australia on 1300 042 734 or Barry Willing at Spraycare on 0412-826-921.