Chris North, Gnadbro Pastoral shares Goldacres Batchmate hack to save chemical costs, sprayer time

Chris North from Gnadbro Pastoral uses one extra piece of machinery to maximise chemical coverage and save sprayer engine wear.

A Goldacres Batchmate has made crop spraying a lot easier and safer for Riverina cropping manager Chris North.

Chris works for Doug and Heath Bruckner’s Gnadbro Pastoral at Collingullie, NSW, and uses a Batchmate to prepare crop sprays in place of the on-board mixing set up of their John Deere R4060 self-propelled sprayer.

Cropping manager Chris North uses a Batchmate to prepare crop sprays in place of the on-board mixing set up of a John Deere R4060 self-propelled sprayer.

The company runs a mixed livestock and cropping enterprise growing wheat, barley and canola.

Having prepared plenty of spray mixes the conventional way with on-board systems, Chris has become a big fan of the Batchmate.

Portable, stand-alone chemical mixing units are finding favour among grain growers with quicker sprayer refill times, more thorough mixing, better operator safety and reduced wear and tear on sprayers.

The 800-litre Batchmate can quickly prepare a mix before pumping into a sprayer tank as it refills. Even more time is saved if there is a second worker who can prepare a batch while the sprayer is in the paddock, so it can be ready immediately on the machine’s return.

Chris had been spraying during the past week, to control summer weeds such as Bathurst burr, woody weeds and paddymelons.

To control a broad spectrum of weeds, he mixed up to six chemicals in each batch, which was easier to do with a Batchmate, he said.

“The Batchmate is a really handy bit of gear,” Chris said.

“I can have the chemicals mixed and pumped and the (6000-litre) sprayer filled all in around 15 minutes. I give it a quick clean and add the water for the next batch and it’s already for the next lot when I come back.

“It’s really safe, as it limits your handling of chemicals. The venturi induction system means there’s no risk of coming into contact with chemicals from spills or splashing.

“And there’s no worries that the mixing is thorough.

“It definitely saves time, I think it works really well.

“It’s not overly complicated and easy to use and I like the separate hand wash set up which is very handy when you have finished mixing,” Chris said.

The Batchmate unit and John Deere sprayer used by Chris North on the Riverina cropping property were he works.

Goldacres Batchmate.

Goldacres product manager Stephen Richards said bypassing the sprayer’s own induction and mixing set up saved a lot of time and engine hours on the sprayer.

“It just speeds everything up and mixes it up a lot better than the on-board mixers,” Mr Richards said.

“When using the large capacity tank of the sprayer for mixing, sometimes some chemicals may start to settle before they are properly mixed with the other chemicals, so the Batchmate gets around that by ensuring a really good mix before it is pumped into the sprayer tank.

Two agitators which work in opposing directions mix extremely well.

“It’s like a spa bath in there,” Mr Richards said.

“Dry powders and granules particularly can take a lot of mixing and so if you can do that while the sprayer is out in the paddock you also save a lot of downtime.”

A three-inch Honda-driven pump can then transfer the 800-litre mix into the sprayer tank in about 90 seconds.

“If you spend 30 minutes transferring chemical directly into the sprayer, that’s 30 minutes added to the engine hours and it all adds up over time to a significant amount when the same job can be done by the Batchmate’s pump,” Mr Richards said.

The portable Batchmate comprises an 800-litre tank mounted on a steel, skid base with a concave bottom so it drains completely leaving no residues behind. It has two lids, a pressure gauge, hand wash tank and wash down gun and hose for cleaning up and a Honda-driven centrifugal pump.

Liquid chemicals are drawn into the tank via a venturi induction or alternatively a stainless drum buster knife mounted on the tank’s lid can be used to pierce the bottom of a drum or bag of chemical which speeds up the loading of chemical into the Batchmate.

A drum-flushing nozzle and stainless basket strainer fitted inside the large lid can be used to flush out chemical jugs or drums.

The controls are all very simple, well labelled and intuitive so they are very easy to use even for a relatively inexperienced operator, Mr Richards said.

Price for the Batchmate is $10, 945.

goldacres.com.au