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.”
More user experiences
Kim Graham
Kim Graham, Operations Manager of Geeraning Pastoral in WA run a 55-metre Agrifac Condor Endurance on their fully arable farm.
James Cheney
"We’ve been running the Condor now for some time now. She replaced two 4,000 litre machines and has filled the gap fantastically.” - James Cheney
Eric Watson
Eric and Maxine Watson farm almost 500 hectares on the Canterbury Plains of New Zealand, and have specialised in the production of grains, grass, vegetables and legumes for seed.