Peter Britton is one of the first spraying contractors to purchase equipment with a 36m boom.
The contractor, based in Moulton Seas End, says a number of farmers are getting them but he is one of the first contactors to invest in a machine that will result in less damage to crops.
He has bought a Multidrive 6195 self-propelled sprayer that Peter estimates will result in five or six fewer “wheelings” on a 20-acre field because of the bigger boom.
Most contacters are using machines with 24m booms, but Peter says he has been forced to upgrade.
He said: “It’s the biggest sprayer I have ever had, but we have been forced into this because farms want fewer wheelings.”
Peter and his wife Wendy have been fellow directors of the business for ten years, although Peter has been in the job for 28 years.
In that time the operation has grown to the point that Peter worked 40,000 acres of land last year in a 30-mile area.
The season has just begun with the application of liquid fertiliser to wheat, rape and barley and, once the weather warms in March-April time, he will move on to wet, or chemical, spraying.
This is done to farmers’ schedules and specific timings right through to December.
Peter says the new equipment will avoid over-spray because the GPS system automatically switches off the boom at field ends.