The Dealer hears that Coolmore is turning heads yet again with its most recent purchase. This time it’s not a farm but an impressive piece of kit – a top of the range John Deere self-propelled sprayer.

It’s believed the stud has recently taken delivery of a 240hp John Deere R4040i featuring a 4,000l tank, a 280l/min solution pump and boom options from 24m to 36m.

I’m told the basic model would retail at around €280,000 and, depending on the specification, could quickly go north of €300,000.

The sprayer features GPS section control, hill climb training technology and the option of carbon fibre booms.

There are only a handful of these sprayers in the country and they are owned by large tillage farmers, mainly potato growers. By all accounts, no-one with less than 2,000ac of grain would contemplate the purchase.