Based at East Binnington Farm, the Wrights grow a mix of arable and grass crops on 345 acres. They say the use of a larger capacity sprayer came at a time when the farm was looking for more efficiency, and saw the farm move up to 27m tramlines.
Adrian (left) and Will Wright of East Binnington Farm are pleased with their high-spec Ikarus S Pro sprayer.
“We’ve ended up with a much larger sprayer than we would have ever bought, but the productivity, accuracy and increased timeliness we get from the Ikarus has made it one of the best purchases we’ve ever made,” says Adrian. “It is an excellent sprayer.”
With the capacity to apply sprays in a much more timely manner, the Wrights say spraying has become a much more stress-free and easier task with the 3800 litre Ikarus S Pro.
“We started spraying with the Flowmaster controls during the 2012 season to get used to the sprayer, but we have since added full GPS and section control with Starguide III, which has really transformed the way we work,” he says.
He believes the GPS and auto-section control has delivered useful savings by cutting down on overlaps, particularly in smaller fields.
Starguide III offers higher efficiency and automatic section control.
“We’ve spun a few beans in, so there have been no tramlines to follow, and this is where the Starguide system really shines,” he says. “And it’s made us think that we don’t always need to put tramlines in with our drill.”
The farm extends from flat fields adjoining the river Derwent up to the steep slopes of Stexton Hill. None of which have created any problems for the stability afforded by the Ikarus and its 27m HSS boom.
“It is a very stable outfit,” he says. “And it does look big on the back of my New Holland TS100A, but it handles the sprayer with ease. It is a well-matched pair.”
With repeat applications and desiccating ahead of harvest, Adrian Wright reckons to have covered about 3,000 acres of spraying. And so far, he has not suffered a blocked nozzle.
A 100hp New Holland TS100A and 3800 litre/27m Ikarus Pro provides all the spraying efficiency the Wrights could ever want.
“The prime and purge, plus rinsing and cleaning systems, are very thorough,” he says. “You don’t have much to worry about with a sprayer like this.”
“We spray at a modest 12kph using water volumes of 200 litres/ha and still have tremendous capacity at our fingertips,” he says. “With a sprayer this size, we now make much more timely applications.”
5th February 2014