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| Customer Testimonials - 500 Series sprayer |
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Terry Miller, High Monkton Farm, Bridgwater
Terry Miller, who runs a 360ha (900acre) mixed dairy, arable and pig farm near Bridgwater, Somerset reckons his three-year old John Deere 512 mounted machine is the easiest to use sprayer he has ever operated.
“As an owner and operator, ease of use is an important aspect when deciding which machine to buy. With the obvious high quality build, electronic control unit and the VRS recirculation system, the 512 provided everything I was after,” he says.
Mr Miller’s sprayer is not only equipped with the EL-4 control system, he also chose to add a GreenStar satellite receiver with SF1 GPS signal for guidance. This, he says, really improves accuracy when pre-emergence spraying and on grassland.
He is also pleased with VRS recirculation system’s ability to provide instant starts, with fully mixed product always available at every nozzle from the very start. This prevents any problems with a ‘V’ pattern being produced when, without the system, mixed chemical takes a while to reach the furthest tips.
“I know the moment I switch the sprayer on it will produce the proper pattern. It is also useful to be able to purge the lines with clean water. I am also delighted with the EL-4 control box - it is so simple and easy to use. I have the four-way nozzle clusters on the booms. Setting up is simply a case of moving these to the nozzle tip I require and then selecting the appropriate colour on the controller. I then know that the application rate will always be maintained, regardless of forward speed, obviously within the pressure limits,” he explains.
Mr Miller uses the machine on about 240ha (600 acres) of crops including winter wheat, oilseed rape, forage maize, barley and linseed. He reckons to cover up to 1,200ha (3,000 acres) every season, with the sprayer mounted on his John Deere 6820 tractor.
He chose to move to a mounted sprayer because in his small fields it provides better manoeuvrability. He usually works at about 10km/hr and with a normal application rate of 100 litres/ha he is able to hold a 12ha load in the 1,200 litre tank, which perfectly suits his operations.
He has owned the machine for three seasons and it has never let him down. Apart from an annual NSTS test, the machine receives normal maintenance. One of his main factors for buying the machine was its build quality, and he says this has proved to be one of the machine’s strong points. Also, he adds, the boom suspension system not only allows the sprayer to glide across the crop, the boom itself is much stronger than he has seen on other machines.
The addition of satellite guidance via the GreenStar system works very well, and he is now finding more uses for the unit outside spraying for work such as drilling and cultivating. He also finds the FieldDoc software is a useful aid.
“I use it for measuring fields, marking boundaries and mapping the coverage. It can hold up to 250 different fields, and I find it useful because I am able to call up a previous job, go back into the field and bring up the previous tramlines,” he explains.
“In my point of view, as an owner and operator, my John Deere 512 mounted sprayer is the easiest to use sprayer I have ever had. It is simple to move from crop to crop and change application rates, and the EL-4 controller really does mean the sprayer thinks for itself. In the end I can get more work done than I could before, in the same time.”
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