Andy Morton
JSR Farms is one of the largest family owned UK farming companies, established in 1958. Growing a range of crops such as wheat, barley, oil seed rape, vining peas, beans and potatoes, the arable operations spans 4000 hectares over 14 sites across East Yorkshire.
Agrifac Condor IV Self propelled machines
The company currently operates two 5000L 24m Agrifac Condor IV self-propelled machines, which each rack up 1,500 hours per year. The boom width is driven at JSR by the amount of slurry that they apply to growing crops during the Spring. Arable Farm Manager, Andy Morton comments,
We are applying around 60,000 cubic metres per year at 24 metres. Although there is other equipment available on the market to allow us to go wider with slurry application. The cost of that equipment in one season was too much to justify. So we have had to tailor the sprayers to match our existing equipment.
Importance of new sprayers
As well as the importance of their new sprayers fitting in with their current system, it is imperative that the operators’ preferences were considered ahead of the purchase too. With spending the majority of their time with the machine, it was important that the machine was easy for them to operate, service and maintain. Travelling across all fourteen sites, the comfort, speed on the road and efficiency were also huge factors to discover, as well as ensuring the machines provided excellent output, boom height control and section control to allow operations to continue efficiently and effectively.
Operators opinions
Andy Morton comments,
Our operators’ opinions are key to us, as it’s important that they are happy in the machine that they are working in. After the demonstration, they said they were very impressed with the cab comfort, operator controls and road speed. We do some spraying on ploughed land, and it was very comfortable across the ploughing, and the boom stability is excellent. Our operators also have good communication with the Agrifac technicians as well – they’re in direct communication with them for support and backup
Agrifac leading sprayer brands
Andy concluded: “We chose Agrifac as we felt that they were a strong brand, a reputable sprayer manufacturer, with a very good product in their Condor machines. The operators came back with excellent feedback from the demonstration. To help us make an informed decision on our sprayer purchase. Agrifac appears to be one of the leading sprayer brands in the UK with lots of new technology available! Which we are interested in finding out more about in the future.”
Cereals
When it comes to Arable Farming, Cereal crops such as grains could be argued as being the most commonly grown across the globe. Cereal crops are primarily used as the main ingredient for a whole host of food items, as well as in some drinks too, because they provide essential nutrients needed for the human diet.
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Maize
Similar to sunflowers, maize is a crop which utilizes and thrives on sunlight and is best grown in sunny regions to ensure highest yield per hectare. Soils should be warm enough to ensure a good emergence shortly after being drilled, therefore late Spring is the ideal time for the grower to commence planting.
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Vegetables
Agrifac has developed innovations, options and solutions for spraying all types of crops in line with the farmers needs and desires.
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Potatoes
Similar to Cereal crops, potatoes are generally planted in the Springtime with the bulk of the crop being set between March to April.
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Sugar beets
The root crop sugar beet is the main sugar source grown by farmers in Europe. Like potatoes, this crop grows underground, which makes it even more important to ensure that the soil conditions are adequate to be able to produce a high yielding harvest.
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Paul Huddlestone
R & J Thompson & Son in Goole, East Yorkshire took delivery of their Premium Proven 2013-build Agrifac Condor III last year, which arrived to farm with 7,600 hours on the clock.