The most obvious assumption is that these large operators are looking to reduce establishment costs and are comparing the great difference in price. But this may not be the only reason. Mounted or trailed sprayers have a number of other advantages to the modern farmer allowing a much greater versatility in their operations.
The advances in technology, particularly from companies such as Amazone, has ensured that the capacity of mounted sprayers now match, or even exceed that of self-propelled options. The light weight design allows the use of smaller tractors and being mounted, ensures the tractors can be used for other operations on the farm when not spraying. For many of the larger operators, they have replaced a self-propelled with two or sometimes three mounted sprayers. This enables multiple parts of the farm to be sprayed at one time and a shortening of time on the spraying process. This also suits the farmer who has land in a variety of different locations and can have one tractor and mounted sprayer working at each site. A common concern for many of these large operators is the down time experienced when there is a fault or repair to be made on the self-propelled machine. This time delay can be critical when the window for spraying is short. Having two or three mounted versions (and let's not forget to mention the cost of these multiple sprayers often remains less than one self-propelled), ensures spraying can continue while one machine is being attended to. In addition, some farmers may use a sprayer for liquid fertiliser and this then allows both fertilising and pest control processes to be done with one machine.
Of particular popularity over the last South African spraying season has been the Amazone UF 1801 Sprayer. With a standard capacity of 1,980 ℓ, it has the option of an extra 1,000 ℓ front tank, which ensures this mounted sprayer holds just short of 3,000 ℓ. The UF series also comes with Super-S booms with wide working widths of 15 to 28 meters, and for safe and fast road transport the Super-S-boom is folded directly behind the spray tank to give a transport width of only 2,4 m. The Amazone UF sprayers impress with their maneuverability, simple handling yet achieving high acreage efficiency.
Like any change in behaviour, you have a number of early adopters who make the move or change before the majority. We have recognised that the farmers who have made the change are very pleased with the move and are encouraging their counterparts to do the same.
In addition to the UF mounted sprayers, Amazone offers a range of trailed sprayers including the UG series which has a capacity of up to 3,200 ℓ and working widths of up to 28 m and the UX trailed field sprayer series which is available with a capacity of up to 12,000 ℓ and working width of 21-40 m. Amazone sprayers are available with different electronic control terminals, but all sprayers are also available on the ISOBUS platform, making it possible to have full operational control of these sprayers via any compatible ISOBUS Universal Terminal.