Entering the township from the east, it’s hard not to notice the clutch of leviathan-sized farm sprayers that almost dwarf DOM Distribution’s (DOM) premises.

It’s from here these machines are distributed not only throughout Australia’s eastern seaboard but also, more recently, the Northern Territory and New Zealand with different supply arrangements operating in Western Australia.

Quietly-spoken principal, Pat O’Brien, just back from the US manufacturer’s HQ in Wisconsin, said the company’s sales efforts during the last 12 months had seen it take out Miller’s ‘best and largest international distributor in the world’ accolade.

All this translates into selling about 100 of these self-propelled units in the course of the last year, signalling the emergence of a new force in Australia’s highly competitive mechanised broadacre sector.

Remarkably, DOM has only been handling Miller sprayers since 2004, quickly moving to specialise in these sprayers-with-a-difference and their easily recognisable front-mounted booms.

Naturally, sales trends are closely tracked by DOM and it’s interesting to hear that more family farmers, perhaps with two or three properties, are purchasing self-propelled sprayers that traditionally have been sold to contractors.

Worries about contractors turning up on time to apply costly chemicals at critical crop growth stages, plus a shortage of skilled farm staff apparently are the drivers that are putting more and more farmers behind the wheels of self-propelled sprayers.

For these machines to earn their keep (they carry price tags ranging from ($300,000 to $450,000), the emphasis is in maximising their performance, according to Mr O’Brien.

Contract operators regularly achieve 1500 hours annual useage, upgrading towards the end of a 12-month stint with their new Millers in the knowledge they also hold noteworthy re-sale values.

For the record, DOM offers six of Miller’s Nitro brand machines in Australia, including its 4000 series and associated range-topping 4365 unit.

By any yardstick, this is a big machine. It comes with a sizeable 6100L tank, 272kW (365hp) Cummins engine and 36m (120ft) wide spray boom.

No tractor-driver’s neck here as the operator sits in a state-of-the-art tractor cab with an unrivalled view of all the nozzles spaced across all five-sections.

* Extract from a full report to appear in Queensland Country Life, December 4 edition.