Tillage farming near the village of Ardstraw, in north Co Tyrone, William Russell grows 450 acres of cereals annually using predominately min-till establishment methods.

In total, this sees over 3,350 acres sprayed annually.

With this in mind, William upgraded his seven-year-old Amazone UF 1801 mounted sprayer and front tank combination to the latest higher-capacity UF 2002 model in 2019.

Why mounted

Asked if he had or ever would consider going down the route of a trailed sprayer, William said: “Given the lie of the land where I’m farming, there’s a lot of rolling hills and hollows as well as plenty of small fields.

“The front- and rear-mounted combination works well on hills and slopes, especially with the front tank which adds front ballast aside from additional capacity.”

Each nozzle is electronically actuated meaning each nozzle (50cm) can be shut off individually.

Manoeuvrability was another factor William took into consideration. He said overall length was working out shorter than most trailed sprayers, combined with the fact corners could be reversed into more easily.

“I considered the option of a demount sprayer with the idea of placing it on a Fastrac but it was working out very expensive. As well as that it was going to be more time-consuming to take on and off.”

William believes the ideal machine would be a self-propelled but he feels it is not justifiable for his farm.

Why Amazone

William switched to an Amazone sprayer in 2004 having kept Hardi models right from his first 10m sprayer up until his last 21m machine. In 2004 he decided to upgrade his sprayer with the intention of moving to a 27m boom.

To ease fitment to and from the tractor he had a front and rear coupling system fabricated.

While scouting the market, Amazone stood out to William because of its boom strength and overall compactness once folded. This ended up being the route taken and after seven seasons with his first 27m UF 1801 1,800l mounted setup he upgraded it again in 2011 for the updated UF 1801 and a FT 1001 front tank adding an additional 1,000l tank capacity up front.

This was William’s first GPS section control sprayer, offering nine-section shut-off compared to manual section shut-off on his previous machine. This sprayer was also fitted with Amazone’s DUS pressure recirculation system, which was optional at the time, he said.

Although not used by William, the 60l induction hopper is well laid out and user friendly.

By 2019, 40,000 acres had been sprayed trouble-free. William noted that all he had done with the sprayer in terms of maintenance over his ownership was refurbish the pump for peace of mind.

Being a man to keep machinery as fresh as possible to an extent at which it can be justified, he had seen Amazone’s new (at the time) higher specification UF 02 model mounted sprayer which was the next step up from the UF 01 series in terms of specification.

The compactness of the boom while folded was one of the main initial attractions to the Amazone brand.

A deal was later struck with his local dealer Donegal Tractors to buy the flagship 2000l UF 2002 and UF 1502 front tank. Soon after he had a local fabricator build a coupler to allow the front and rear tanks to be easily connected together without the need of running hoses each time from front to back, an investment of £300 which he said was money well spent.

Features

The first obvious change with the UF 2002 for William was the 200l extra rear tank capacity and additional 500l front tank capacity. William says this has saved time having fewer trips back and forth to the yard to refill.

Another major change he noticed about with the UF 02 range was the new coupling system which allows it to be easily attached and detached from his JCB Fastrac 4220, noting that it can be done in 15 minutes.

The control SmartCentre operator station is well designed and easily used.

The SmartCentre control panel of the sprayer is neatly located behind a hinged door. Layout here is considered neat, with a seven-way pressure valve used to switch between all functions. Underneath this then is the larger 60l induction hopper which William pointed out has never been used. Instead, William installed a stationary induction hopper inside his chemical store. That said, the induction hopper can be operated with clean water while filling via suction hose or taken from the 350l fresh water tank.

This generation of sprayers uses a Comet-sourced piston diaphragm pump with a 300l/min capacity plus an additional 150l/min capacity from an auxiliary pump. This pump is used for the Flowcontrol+ feature which integrates the front tank into the filling, spraying and cleaning processes, moving liquid constantly between each.

A Trimble GFX 750 terminal and retrofit Isobus system is used as the control terminal.

William likes this feature as it effectively treats the two tanks as if it’s one large tank with the option of tweaking this how he likes. For example, he tends to keep as much liquid up front for ballast purposes etc. The fill level can be read using the terminal or visually on each of the tanks via an analogue scale.

The tanks themselves are built from polyethylene with a smooth internal surface, according to the manufacturer. William noted that these particular tanks seem to be better quality as they haven’t faded like his previous sprayers did. He said washing is thorough with no nooks or crannies to hold residues.

William noted that it took some time to learn the controls of the joystick.

That said, he did note that given the nature of a front and rear setup it does tend to use more water than a trailed sprayer probably would. Being fitted with the Comfort-Pack, the sprayer benefits from auto washing and auto fill stop as well as other features including automatic agitation intensity depending on fill level.

William’s machine is fitted with the 27m Super-S2 series booms which are offered in sizes ranging from 15m to 30m. Aside from the DistanceControl plus, which sees four sensors across the boom width constantly maintain boom height, he said that booms are similar to his previous machine. Moving to nozzles, it is equipped with the optional AmaSwitch single nozzle control with three-nozzle manually adjustable bodies.

With a total capacity of over 3,500l leaves William's setup edging on self-propelled performance.

Essentially this allows sectional shut off every 50cm. This works in conjunction with the DUS Pro recirculation system which William notes results in instant and even pressure across the whole 27m boom whether sections are turned on one by one or all together. This time around William opted for the individual nozzle LED lighting kit which he said aids spraying early morning or late at night which is often the case.

Controls

William went down the Isobus route even though his Fastrac at the time wasn’t equipped with either GPS or Isobus. He had Vantage Ireland retrofit a Trimble GFX 750 10in terminal and Isobus kit which now hosts the sprayer and GPS. Not having to opt for an Amatron control terminal allowed cost to be kept to a minimum. The only thing he did point out was that a larger terminal would have been a better option as both the GPS and sprayer control screens could be viewed more easily while using split screen mode.

The UF 1502 front mounted tank has a capacity of 1,500l.

All boom controls are operated using the AmaPilot+ joystick. The joystick itself could be more intuitive as none of its buttons are labelled. Without the key chart, operation would be a guessing match for those less familiar.

Having sprayed a total of 9,000 acres so far, William is happy with how the UF 2002 and FT 1502 has performed. He said: “Coupled with the 4220 Fastrac it’s realistically the closest thing you’ll get to a self-propelled sprayer. The Fastrac offers great stability, visibility and comfort.

“The individual nozzle shut-off is excellent, eliminating almost any overlap as each nozzle is electrically actuated. It also reduces the amount of pipework on the sprayer boom.

“The stainless steel coupler I had made saves a lot of time connecting the front and rear tanks as well as when it comes to attaching and detaching the sprayer.

“The only downside to the setup would have to be the distance the front tank sits out in front of the tractor, especially exiting fields where cars, traffic can be hard to see. It’s not an Amazone issue, more so just the nature of any front and rear combination – a major benefit of a self-propelled.

“So far, I can’t fault the sprayer. Everything from build quality to performance and backup have been very good.”

Booms: 27m Super-S2 series booms.

Rear tank capacity: 2,000l.

Front tank capacity: 1,500l.

Working height: 0.5m to 2.2m.

Pump: Comet piston diaphragm.

Terminal: Isobus via Trimble GFX 750.

Section control:Individual nozzle shut off (every 50cm).

Starting list price: UF 2002: €67,000 + VAT.

FT 1502: €7000 + VAT.