WHEN it comes to being able to pass judgement on farm sprayers and spray technology Russell Fuhlbohm is ideally positioned because he not only is a producer but also a contractor.
From his 64ha (160 acre) home property at Mount Molar, a stone's throw from Clifton in south east Queensland, he is one of three Queensland finalists in this year's Syngenta Crop Protection annual Spray Awards competition for spraying excellence.
Operating within a 50km radius, the emphasis is on managing the needs of the district's producers who range from lifestyle farmers to absentee owners and larger farming enterprises.
As well, Russell leases some 44ha (110 acres) of nearby country, thereby ensuring a hectic, but manageable, work schedule throughout the year.
"So it's a small operation with the contracting side of the business centered on the sprayer," he said.
Although contract fertilising, cultivating and planting operations are on offer to local producers, the mainstay of this busy enterprise is undoubtedly its nifty-looking self-propelled 4660 Spray Coupe sprayer.
"They are great machines and their capital costs are lower than that of a bigger sprayer," Russell Fuhlbohm said.
"But what a lot of my customers like is their lightness - they don't cut deep tracks because the whole machine only weighs 5t dry."
Powered by a 125hp engine, and weighing just 6.6t when loaded up, it is fitted with bigger wheels which allow the 4660 to "tiptoe" over soft ground, or when operating in wet conditions.
Equipped with a 1600L tank, its 24m booms can be extended to span 27m to suit customer requirements.
Set up on 3m wheel centres for Controlled Traffic Farming, it also comes into its own when carrying out hillside work where stability is an important issue.
When it comes to work loads, the 4660 can achieve some 40ha/hour when travelling at between 22kph to 24kph which is considered to be optimum in flat paddock situations.
The idea is to minimise dust, also any 'shadowing' effect resulting from the sprayer travelling too fast.
"I am running low pressure air induction nozzles and the bodies are changeable so I can have three options depending on what job I am doing and what pressure I plan to run at for the spray quality required," Russell Fuhlbohm said.
While the 4660 is just 18 months old, it has already racked up 1500 hours work which means it has probably covered more that 20,000ha to date.
So it looks to be fitting in with any contractor's business maxim, namely "if a machine is not working, then it's not making money".
A large part of the contract spraying business in the late summer is spraying out mature sorghum pre-harvest with the majority of work concentrating on fallow spraying the rest of the year.
Interestingly, between 20 to 30 percent of the Fuhlbohm spray contracting operation is carried out at night.
"The best spraying times are not always in daylight hours," Russell said.
"So, if it's busy and the conditions are right, we keep going but will pull up when either temperature, humidity or wind speed are too high, or too low.
"You have to make these decisions on the go," he added.
Then there is that all-important paperwork. For each job Russell Fuhlbohm must note weather conditions, application rates, products, paddock references, to name but a few examples that must be entered in to his record-keeping system.
The mood of the district seems to be "conservatively optimistic", based on a slightly positive long-term weather forecast, the downside being lacklustre grain prices.
"A grower said to me the other day 'I've got to have a go (at planting), because you've got to be in it to win'," Russell Fuhlbohm said.
"With the last few winter crops being very mediocre, the hope is of turning it around without spending a lot of money."
"Just recently we've contract-planted about 400ha of winter grain crop and earlier, on the March rain, we planted about the same area of grazing oats."
As to whether there are any conflicts between managing a property and honouring contract commitments, the customer always comes first, it appears.
The small-scale nature of the Fuhlbohm's cropping program means it can be tended to "very quickly", neatly slotting in with their yearly contract operations.
As a respected district contractor the emphasis is on setting an example to farmer customers. This means always using gloves when mixing, wearing eye protection, even an apron to minimise the effects of splashes.
Meanwhile, the point being made by Syngenta Crop Protection Pty Ltd's area sales manager, Darren Brown, is of the need to "raise the level of awareness" when both producers and contractors haul out their spray rigs at the start of each season.
He was commenting as judging got under way for the Queensland state finals of its annual awards competition, noting how the message was slowly getting across of the importance of changing nozzles, for instance, to accommodate different crops and conditions.
"There's a need to change that 'one-nozzle-does-all' type mentality," he said.
* Runners-up in this year's competition were Cecil Plains producer Peter Armitage, and also the Heck Farms aggregation at Woongoolba between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. Queensland winner Russell Fuhlbohm scores a trip to Agquip, including travel and accommodation, where he will join other state finalists at an Awards Dinner to be held in Tamworth on August 17 when the national winner will be announced.
Email a friend