Spray license

Location
East Mids
Unless the OP is going to do more than this bit round the margins, it is not worth him cranking the sprayer up and doing PA2. PA1 is needed for applying any pesticide even around the yard, PA6a could then be used for knapsack or a quad mounted sprayer with a long lead and a lance which is actually really useful for spot spraying. I think with a narrow boom you are covered by PA6a as well but would have to check up on that.
 

Still Farming

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
South Wales UK
All this chat about PA 1/2 made me think back. I got mine in 1987 [number 269] as I was also training to be an examiner. I did the course at my local college [Farm Institute as they were then known as.] It really was a hoot having a course run by lecturers who only knew the theory side of the job, and seeing men who were competent operators of 24m SP machines running around in full protective gear filling knapsack sprayers with milk powder or orange juice. I hope training has improved since then!
Haven't you had a refresher course???
 

Pennine Ploughing

Member
Mixed Farmer
All this chat about PA 1/2 made me think back. I got mine in 1987 [number 269] as I was also training to be an examiner. I did the course at my local college [Farm Institute as they were then known as.] It really was a hoot having a course run by lecturers who only knew the theory side of the job, and seeing men who were competent operators of 24m SP machines running around in full protective gear filling knapsack sprayers with milk powder or orange juice. I hope training has improved since then!
Snap, but we not that big of sprayers up here, compared to the south
20210907_160845.jpg
 
Is the op a " junior" possibly ?
Why is the 12 m size no good for the arable?

The only time that I went on a spraying course, in about 1984, I distinctly remember the bloke teaching us saying that there was absolutely no need for sprayers to be any wider than 12m, which I thought was a bit sweeping. The place that I was working on at the time as a student had a 24m sprayer.
 

kiwi pom

Member
Location
canterbury NZ
All this chat about PA 1/2 made me think back. I got mine in 1987 [number 269] as I was also training to be an examiner. I did the course at my local college [Farm Institute as they were then known as.] It really was a hoot having a course run by lecturers who only knew the theory side of the job, and seeing men who were competent operators of 24m SP machines running around in full protective gear filling knapsack sprayers with milk powder or orange juice. I hope training has improved since then!
Does Pa1 and 2 actually involve a sprayer these days?
I remember before I left the UK, the farm I was on decided to get certificates for two staff. The examiner came to the farm and they were passed before afternoon milking. They never went near the sprayer, I know because I was driving it that day.
 

Exfarmer

Member
Location
Bury St Edmunds
The only time that I went on a spraying course, in about 1984, I distinctly remember the bloke teaching us saying that there was absolutely no need for sprayers to be any wider than 12m, which I thought was a bit sweeping. The place that I was working on at the time as a student had a 24m sprayer.
Around that time a local contractor to me ( North Bucks then ) had a 36 metre Berthoud now that was a monster in its day. He took a lot of work which had been done by aerial contractors especially spraying off rape and late wheat fungicides. There were still a lot of crops with no tramlines then.
 

Oscar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Sorry have not time to read whole thread but it looks like your Somerset based and Tetton Training ( just outside Taunton) will do your Pa instruction and testing , farmers themselves
David House 07968 361946
 

David.

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
J11 M40
The only time that I went on a spraying course, in about 1984, I distinctly remember the bloke teaching us saying that there was absolutely no need for sprayers to be any wider than 12m, which I thought was a bit sweeping. The place that I was working on at the time as a student had a 24m sprayer.
Was probably the same bloke who told us you should tape up the pressure gauge because it wasn't needed :rolleyes:.
 

JWL

Member
Location
Hereford
Bit different to the chap that was my examiner, John Rhodes who sadly passed away not too long ago. He was our crop walker on the farm I worked on when PA tests came out and me along with the bosses son were some of the early ones tested.
I used to cringe at some of the notes John would put on the bottom of the spray sheet; mix these in a bucket first to see what happens :)
He was doing a lot of work with Chaviot and we had a Spray Coup to try out for a while and dabbled with controlled drop applications
 

Bogweevil

Member
How the hell we managed to grow food without licences and certificates for 4000 years amazes me.
Has UK Agriculture turned woke ?. Discuss.

We didn't douse the countryside in chemicals, fill waters with artificial fertilisers and slurry and increase animal disease risk by high density stocking! Society has become anxious about these and requires reassurance.

And of course we had famines, brucellosis, rinderpest in the past - a small price to pay for being free of red tape.
 

Kidds

Member
Horticulture
Does Pa1 and 2 actually involve a sprayer these days?
I remember before I left the UK, the farm I was on decided to get certificates for two staff. The examiner came to the farm and they were passed before afternoon milking. They never went near the sprayer, I know because I was driving it that day.
I must admit I was never any closer than 100yards to the boom sprayer when I did mine and the air blast orchard sprayer also got ticked off and that was 10 miles away. It shows it was just a box ticking exercise but from the conversation it must have been very obvious I knew what I was talking about.

I am not in favour of all these tickets everyone has to have these days but in the case of spraying it is very obvious there are a lot that have no idea what they are doing. Questions on here like "how much water do I need to spray my field and how much chemical should I put in the tank, it is a blue one?"
There was one where "Dad" always sprayed the whole field with water first so he could work out how much chemical to add before doing it again. Nothing especially wrong with that but that's not really how you do it.
Then again it is not unusual to see a contractor who presumably does have tickets spraying on the top of a hill in gale force winds, most likely at low volume and not one drop hits the field.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 6 3.2%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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