J Porter & Sons

J Porter & Sons of Navenby, Lincolnshire, took delivery of their brand new Agrifac Condor V just after harvest in 2021. Opting for a 5000L machine with 48m working width, this is the firms’ second Condor after running their previous Condor III for the last seven years. As well as sticking with the same brand for their latest upgrade, they have also chosen to spec their new machine up with similar technology add-ons including HighTechAirPlus, after it proved to significantly aid efficiency within operations for the team. Sprayer Operator, Tom Newton gives an honest review of their new Agrifac machine and how he finds spray days the most enjoyable days on the farm. 

“We farm about 3300 acres of arable land, including OSR, barley and wheat, just South of Lincoln. All our harvested crop goes straight to our feed mills here at Barn Farm, which is made into animal feeds for pigs and poultry.” Speaking about the spraying operations, Tom comments: “We’ve just had our second Agrifac Condor delivered to farm. Before this sprayer, we took delivery of an Agrifac Condor III back in 2014. This was when I made the leap from 24m up to a 48m machine, and to be honest I haven’t looked back since.” 

Along with spraying operations, the farm also spread a lot of manure across 12m and 24m blocks, so their 48m ties in with the same running paths. Overwhelmed at first by the sheer size of the 48m machine, Tom assured it didn’t take too long to get used to it: “It is a huge width, but you take your time with it, especially on headlands and turns. The boom is just tremendous though, even at the size it is. It’s so stable. Our previous Condor machine had a different type of boom levelling system on it compared to this one, but after the brand built my trust over the years, I used to switch that off completely and not even bother with it. I used to run the boom completely manual at 48m because the boom is that stable and rides that well that you can run it with no boom levelling at all with the confidence it is going to stay where it needs to be. In the Spring time when we have a lot of other things going on it’s really handy having this machine which is self-contained and can cover the ground quite efficiently. Knocking 500 acres off is quite a steady day for me really!”  

Tom continued: “As well as doubling the boom width from the previous sprayer, we added the HighTechAirPlus technology, which is Agrifac’s in-house droplet adjusting innovation. It allows you to change the droplet size on the go and has eliminated the worry for us of nozzles ever blocking up. In seven years of running our Condor I never once replaced a nozzle or had a blocked nozzle. Nozzle technology is developing but the time consumed by changing nozzles and suffering from blockages can be costly. I can use one nozzle for everything with HTA, and in 7 years, they were still producing the same output as they did on day 1. I am surprised there’s not more users of HTA in the UK – we wouldn’t be without it now.” 

“Upgrading from the III to the V, the most noticeable change is the engine, but also the induction area. It has a huge amount of suction on the induction bowl – it’s all been redesigned. You can throw 20L of roundup in and it sucks it straight through immediately. There’s no risk of overloading at all, it’s so fast. The whole design of the bowl and bracket is very strong and sturdy. Another change which we have benefitted from since the development of their boom height levelling system is StrictHeightPlus. It wasn’t available when we purchased the Condor III, but it seems to be doing a marvellous job on our new Condor V. It’s a very good option to have. I saw it on a few demo machines in the Lincolnshire Wolds where it is very hilly, and it was fantastic. Whilst test driving a machine with this feature on, we really put the system through its paces in that terrain. The booms never went anywhere near the ground, even at spraying speeds of 16km/h.” 

Speaking of his enjoyment of driving the Condor, Tom comments: “This machine is like my second home so the fact it is a pleasure to drive helps tremendously. The Condor has been a very good sprayer and a pleasure to work in for the last 7 years. You can’t always say that of other machines you operate around the farm. With the Agrifac, you can spend nice long days on it and not feel tired or stressed. It’s nice when you get a machine like that. What gives you more peace of mind too is that you know you also have a trustworthy team behind it too if you ever need any backup support. We have always had someone drop in on us from either Sales or Service, even if it’s just to check that we are getting on ok with the machine, or to update the software for us. We’ve never had any issues with the reliability and backup, it’s always been exceptionally good.” 

Tom continued on the topic of reliability, saying: “Having operated other manufacturers’ machines sometimes you dread long periods when you know you’ll just be spraying due to reliability issues and downtime. There’s nothing worse than having all the pressure of that work stacking up against you if you can’t get on. With the Agrifac we have never had that. It’s only ever been the obvious wear and tear which you expect anyway after a certain amount of hours’ use. That was the only downtime I had with the Condor III; a tiny bit of wear and tear maintenance, but we’d already have the bits ready to go so we can get back on the land again as quickly as possible. They’re a very good, very reliable machine, which through the busy periods of the spraying season, there’s no downtime whatsoever.” 

Straight talking: Tom stated there wasn’t another option for them other than Agrifac: “We didn’t try any other brands before purchasing our new Condor V because we didn’t want to go backwards on boom widths or on technology. There are other manufacturers that could have potentially demoed to us, but our trust is already fully with Agrifac. They are a strong reliable machine with a very good team behind them too.” Tom continued: “I think it’s a very good machine and I’m pleased to have another one. Other manufacturers don’t seem to want to take the plunge and make any machines that spread 48m. I think Agrifac are the brand that they should aspire to be to be honest, especially when it comes to what they are doing with their solid and well-built booms. They’re designed well, built well and we are very pleased with it.”