"THE NEW CHALLENGER SPRAYERS ARE WELL BOSS OF THE JOB"

Martin Rowson

T.H. Rowson & Sons, Glebe Farm,

Wrawby near Brigg, North Lincolnshire

Martin and his brother Nigel are the 3rd generation of their family at their farm at Wrawby. They started straight from school and eventually took over the 250 acre farm from their father. They sold their grandfather’s other farm at Barrow to concentrate on contracting a few years ago. They started in this when they took on a stubble to stubble contract at Somerby and must have done a good job as they were then offered the spraying contract if they got a self-propelled sprayer. This has now grown to a massive 5000 acres including all the back end spraying and most of the spring work.

Martin, who now spends most of his time spraying except at harvest, explains, "We originally had a trailed sprayer but we needed a better machine with a 3000 litre tank. Our previous make of sprayer was very unreliable and we couldn’t afford the downtime on contract work. We looked at a Bateman, but there was an 18 month wait for one, and we went to see one of the new Challenger Sprayers working in Nottinghamshire. The Challenger seem to do just what we wanted and was ideal for us with the spray pack being manufactured by Chafer at Gainsborough and maintained by P&B at Brigg, all virtually on our doorstep. So we ordered a Challenger 418 with a 24 metre boom and a 3200 litre tank and took delivery of it last June."

"The most important benefit of the Challenger Sprayer is the centrifugal pump. There is nothing to go wrong with it, whereas with our previous sprayer that had a diaphragm pump, we were having to change the diaphragms twice a year. We also liked the fact that the Challenger has simple manual controls with no unnecessary flashy electrics to go wrong. We find that the more complex the electronics the less reliable the machine and we cannot afford time off for breakdowns. The spray rate is all controlled by the computer and we do have a GPS system to help accurate spraying, but we could not justify going for the full Satellite steering set up."

"The sprayer works very well, the purging system is a good thing and it is easy to clean out, plus the hydraulic suspension reduces boom movement and maintains the sprayer height."

"With a pre-emergent spray and 3 post emergent sprays on beet, peas, rape, barley and wheat, we must do about 24/25,000 acres a year, and we need a machine capable of doing this year after year. The Challenger is well boss of the job and handles well in all conditions and does everything we wanted it to. We contract on 10 different farms from Wooton to Flixborough so there is a lot of road use. The Challenger folds down to a compact size and is very safe on the road with its foot operated throttle and automatic braking and gives speeds up to 42kph."

"On the job it can do 250-400 acres a day, 50 an hour, at around 12-14kph. We can spray 75 acres on a full tank, using about 3/4 of a tank of fuel a day, giving good productivity and economy. The cab gives clear all round visibility, with all the controls to hand and the levels of comfort you need for long hours on the job. The 4 wheel steering gives excellent manoeuvrability especially at the headlands and we use 22" wide tyres early on but switch to 14" when the crops get higher. We have done a lot of work with the Challenger already and like it very much. We expect it to do about 1000 engine hours a year and keep it for 3 years before part exchanging it to get maximum resale value."

"Routine maintenance is done by ourselves otherwise P&B look after everything else. We have dealt with P&B over the years and know we can rely on them for back-up. P&B’s Service Manager, Andy Dixon is excellent, really on the ball, and the technicians who look after our sprayer really know the job," concluded Martin.

Contact Les Bacon at P&B on 01652 600210 or 07774 296380 for further information on Challenger Sprayers.