Croplands WEED-IT spot sprayer saves chemicals for Osborne family

The Osborne family says their new machine with optical weed detection will transform their 3000ha cropping operation.

Jeff Osborne is keen to put his first-ever spot-sprayer to work, having recently bought the latest 7000/36 trailed Croplands WEED-IT machine through Echuca Rural.

Mr Osborne, together with wife Linda, son Brenton and one worker, crops more than 3000ha north of Bendigo at Dingee, growing canola, wheat, barley, oats and vetch.

David Hamilton, Jeff and Brenton Osborne pictured at the handover of the Osbornes’ new sprayer. Pictures: Supplied

“I did a fair bit of research on the WEED-IT sprayer and it looked like the sort of machine that would slot right in to our farming operation,” he said.

“It will go with the self-propelled Miller which does all our blanket spraying, but this one will mean big savings for us in time and chemical.

“You can mix chemical in both main and hot tanks, so can cover a lot of ground before having to stop to refill.”

WEED-IT optical spot-sprayer trailed units are available with a single line for spot-spraying only applications or dual-line plumbing systems for blanket and spot-spraying, which can be done individually or together depending on the job at hand.

The Osbornes’ unit will be teamed with a Case Magnum 305 tractor, part of the farm’s stable of machinery which also includes a high-density Massey Ferguson 2270XD baler and Staheli West Dewpoint 6210 steamer.

Brenton uses these last two in his contracting business, Osborne Baling.

Manufactured at Dry Creek, north of Adelaide, the top-of-the-range Croplands WEED-IT 7000 has a 7000-litre main tank, 800-litre flushing tank and 1500-litre hot tank for highly concentrated chemical.

Croplands WEED-IT 7000 trailed sprayer.

Croplands Victoria-NSW territory manager David Hamilton said the 7000 was originally launched at the Mallee Machinery Field Days five years ago, but this latest model had introduced some major improvements.

“It now has a blue-light system in place of the original red-light – still on the near-infra-red spectrum, but the blue gives more sensitivity settings to detect weeds,” Mr Hamilton said.

“Another major change is the new Quadro set-up offering four nozzles per metre of boom, so on a 36m boom we have 36 cameras and 144 nozzles.

“We also went to one-inch stainless steel, fully reticulated boom plumbing in place of the former half-inch line to get more chemical flow and avoid dumping expensive chemical on to the ground when flushing.

“With this dual-line reticulation system, farmers can put unused chemical straight back into the tank and flush with water alone, as well as being able to put out a pre-emergent and knockdown in the one pass.

“The ground-following boom has also been improved with more efficient steer wheel, castor wheel and swing arms to maintain camera and nozzle height.

“We now have forward orders for WEED-IT machines for 12 months and a 7000, with everything on it, retails for $420,000, plus GST.”

croplands.com.au