C S Backhouse

C S Backhouse in Yorkshire purchased a Premium Proven Agrifac Condor II in 2019. Fully refurbished to their exact spec requirements by their local Agrifac Dealer, the machine was seven-years old with 7000 hours on the clock when it arrived on farm. 12-months on from their purchase, we caught up with Edward Backhouse to find out how their machine has been performing, and how their new pre-owned sprayer has changed operations for them within the business.  

“Hi, my name is Edward Backhouse from C S Backhouse. We operate across the East to South Yorkshire border between Goole and Thorne, farming around 300 hectares which is a combination of cereal crops and potatoes. Our field sizes generally vary from around one hectare to 25 hectares and is good warp to silty warp land. Most of our land is flat here too with the very odd hill. We have had our 36m 5000L Agrifac Premium Proven Condor II within our fleet for a year now. It’s seriously changed the way we work; increased efficiency, reduced stress, and has made me rekindle my love of spraying!  

Potatoes are where we make our money and that’s why we have gone down the self-propelled sprayer route. Having the Agrifac Condor means that we can get on whenever we need to, which is even more important when growing potatoes. It is massively over-capacity for our size of operations, and it is very much a luxury to have but it does mean that we get our spraying done very time-effectively. This year the weather has been so catchy, it’s been hard to know when to trust the weather predictions. Thanks to the Agrifac we are all caught up on our potatoes, but without it we know we wouldn’t have been. Having the size sprayer that this is, it definitely makes everything a lot more relaxed. Our blight spraying used to mean seriously long days. We’ve gone up on our potato acreage, and it’s now an easy day blight spraying with this machine. You don’t have that worry of having to be up really early or be out late at night still going with it. It does mean that on years like this where it’s that unpredictable and we’re trying to fit it in between rain that we can just get that much more done when we need to, and it doesn’t take that long at all.”

We had a self-propelled before this for 3 years previous and we generally like to run our machines for around 10 years, but the old sprayer was constantly breaking down and the back-up was so poor – we had no confidence that we could actually go out and spray when we wanted to. As soon as the Agrifac turned up it was a different story. I’ve always done so much spraying, and due to staff changes recently I’ve been back on the sprayer again, and it’s been really enjoyable. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed driving the Agrifac and being on it. It’s really comfy, it’s a pleasant environment, and compared to previous sprayers that struggled to reach 40km down the road, this gets up to 50km and allows you to just crack on and get the job done quickly, easily and happily.  

It was a massive decision at the time to swap something that shouldn’t have needed swapping, and we didn’t want to fall into the trap of purchasing something that wouldn’t serve its longevity on the farm. As soon as the decision to purchase the Agrifac was made, it was a relief to know that we were going to have something that was going to run and be reliable.”

It was a conversation that we had with Neil at Yorkshire and Humber about the machine and the amount of work they were putting into the refurbishment of this machine that made us even consider going for a Premium Proven sprayer. We didn’t think that we would be able to warrant or afford a machine like this. When they’re saying what lengths they’re going to to strip it down, and when you see it go through the process – backed down to a bare chassis, how many new parts that are added to it, it’s the most reassuring part. It’s a pre-owned machine with 7000 hours on it that looks, acts and drives like a new one. Plus adding the 12 months warranty on it just gave us complete peace of mind that anything that wasn’t quite right would be guaranteed to be put right if needed.  

It wasn’t a ‘polish it up and get it out the door as quick as possible’ process – it took a lot of conversation with both dealer and Agrifac UK to find out exactly what spec we wanted to refurbish this machine to be. Agrifac UK never left us without a machine during the whole process either. They were quite happy for us to drop in and look at the machine during any stage of the refurbishment, and we had photo updates from the dealer to show us exactly what they’d been doing. They never hid anything from us, never gave us any false promises – we knew exactly what was happening and what needed to be done to the sprayer. This machine was on the Y&H stand at YAMS Show in 2020, and almost everyone that walked past thought this was a brand new Agrifac, not an almost 7-year-old sprayer.”

“When we saw Agrifac machines at shows previously we always just walked past it because we used to think they were out of our price range. We have a great relationship with Yorkshire and Humber, and I remember they wanted to come and do a demonstration with one, and I honestly said there’s no point as it would be wasting our time, but after being introduced to the Premium Proven programme it opened our eyes to the opportunity of owning one.  

It came as a bit of a shock to neighbouring farms and even to consultants who came to visit shortly after we brought it home, that we are now operating this high-capacity sprayer when it might not look necessary in comparison to the size of farm we are. However, it stacks up in our mind, it works so much better for us, and in terms of longevity and how long it will be in operation here, it makes total sense for us. It also makes life so much easier for us. If we want to do any more, we’ve got the capacity to do it, but also the inclination that if we wanted to do more we can do it – it’s helped us future proof the business for a very long time.”

“I’d urge anyone who is looking for a used sprayer to consider the Agrifac premium proven program. I can’t stress enough the extent of work they do on the sprayers to bring them back up to almost new condition. Knowing that there’s someone local that is going to keep the machine right was imperative during our purchase process too. If we had been purchasing this machine new, I don’t think we would have wanted anything extra on it compared to what it has. The dealings with Chris at Agrifac and the guys at Y&H have been brilliant. They’re always there to help you. The Service support too from both dealer and manufacturer has been brilliant. As a second-hand buyer you’re usually seen as the lesser sibling that you haven’t spent the big bucks so you don’t deserve the back-up and you’re not going to be swapping every 3 years, so they don’t need to be looking after you. Agrifac haven’t been like that at all. They’ve kept us up and running like it was a new machine. The fact that they’re willing to put a years’ warranty on a second-hand machine means that they’ve got the confidence in it.  

It’s definitely fulfilled all my dreams and desires! It’s done everything we’ve wanted it to do and it’s probably done more too. I’ve really enjoyed driving it myself and am impressed at how easy it is to drive and work. I think Agrifac is unique in offering the level of refurb that they do that means that we can get the premium machines at affordable prices and have the peace of mind that they are going to look after you just as well as they look after customers that buy new. You’re going to get the technology, the output, the durability, the quality of the machine that a new machine can offer too. I don’t know any other manufacturer that offers that either.”