My sprayer contractor is retiring so I’m going to take the job back in hand which I’ve been thinking about for a while anyway. I’ve got 350ac arable and 90ac of grass used for grazing/hay making. I’m thinking of buying a 24m self propelled at about £40,000 as I know where there’s a very nice refurbished Sands coming up and a Kuhn Axis spreader for urea predominately. Or shall I look for another contractor? I’ve got the time to do it myself but will it work out any cheaper overall?
Equipment for 440ac
- Thread starter Fieldsfarm
- Start date
NAAC says spraying is around £6/ac so with 6 passes that’s £12,600 for chemicals and £6,300 for 3 passes with a fert spreader.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
With spraying, the big perk is that *you* get to see all of your farm. It's the job I'm least keen to hand to contractors, but I'm struggling to justify my self propelled on my average. Potentially a nice, owner driven chafer sp for sale at 24m.....but I'm hoping to keep on just one more year!
Do it yourself if you can, contractors tend to use less water to get more acres per fill up and come when work load allows them to which is understandable but the farms around here which are by far the worst off for blackgrass and disease are all the ones that get contractors in to do the spraying so the cost of contractors vs buying your own machine is only the start of it you haven't even factored in the possible gain in yield over the years of getting things sprayed when they should be sprayed. Imo look at something like a househam sprint/ bateman rb16/ rb17
Trailed at 24m runs down a lot more crop turning in awkward fields. 30m + I'd be thinking the same as you .
That’s why I want to take it back in hand.
Devil's advocate
Member
- Location
- Posh side of Barnsley
Why not a mounted sprayer even if you buy another tractor to put it on.
Nearly
Member
- Location
- North of York
- Location
- The North
with you on this, cost of machinery i would much rather have a tractor i already own working harder/more than throw the money into another machine with an engine which will sit dormant most of the year
with 40k you could get a nice trailed sprayer, plus if your tractor breaks down you can swap it onto another!
deleted user 837354
Member
Trailed/mounted would manage this fine. Definitely do your own spraying. Make sure it is a 24m one.
How much capacity do you need on 350 acres though?
Mounted 1500lt tank give you 25 acres per fill without going stupid low water volumes so 14 tank fulls to do a pass on the lot. 2-3 days, Less if front tank added or trailed.
- Location
- Linconshire
£5 to £8k for a 2500 litre 24m trailed. Use the £33k saved to spend on something else.
With 40k you could get 2 decent self propelleds perfectly capable of the work load. We went for self propelled for exactly the reason you said get a trailed we thought with the cost of tractors why not keep them longer and keep the hours off them unless you've had a self propelled you'll never appreciate how convenient it is we didn't until we got one and now we never have to mess about putting rowcrops on a tractor and having it tied up on them until harevst time. We've had a househam sprint for 5 years and the only thing we've done is service it and put diaphragms in the pump. They travel a lot better aswell and use next to no fuel at all.
Something like that would last you years
will_mck
Member
One of the best bargains I've ever bought was a 21m 1200 litre mounted hardi sprayer, £2600, it was 9 years old at the time. Still have it 17 years later, think I've only ever changed one pipe on it in all that time. Swapped the nozzles for low dift ones. It's such a simple machine compared to the new ones today and does exactly the same thing as a 30 or 40k one. I've converted dad's old hardi 600 litre sprayer and use it for a front tank. I can hook the whole thing on in 5 minutes and it covers 30acres per fill
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Nearly
Member
- Location
- North of York
Simple sprayers have gone down in price since the grandad rights have gone and NROSO has come in.
Big capacity 24m are available for little money. I bought this 6 years ago for £2500 and wouldn't go back to mounted. I am looking at an old Clayton too just for rowcrop work.
It all depends on how fast you want to get on and if you can get it in the workshop.
Big capacity 24m are available for little money. I bought this 6 years ago for £2500 and wouldn't go back to mounted. I am looking at an old Clayton too just for rowcrop work.
It all depends on how fast you want to get on and if you can get it in the workshop.
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