BEVERLEY Steel Fabrication is making its 1000th boomsprayer.
And ironically, the new owner is local farmer David Adams, who designed the original model with the help of Beverley Steel founder Eddie Peart in 1994.
David ordered the new machine only days before Torque dropped in to chat with company managing director Jenifer Petchell (Eddie's daughter) and workshop supervisor/ customer relations manager Rod Lindau about completing 20 and 21 years of service respectively.
Jenifer revealed she started working towards a teaching degree before coming back to work in the family business which Eddie, who is now semi-retired from the business, started in Beverley in 1985.
"Before that dad took the family around a lot of station country in New South Wales, Victoria and WA before settling down," Jenifer said.
"And it seemed only natural that I would work for the business because I was always around watching dad work and helping when I could."
Jenifer started with the company in 2000 as a fitter, assembling boomsprayers and as company sales grew she then gravitated to office work and handling the books while Eddie was busy seeing customers and potential buyers.
Rod joined in 1999 after a career as parks supervisor with the Shire of Swan.
"I had no trade but Eddie and I got on and I got the job," he said.
"I was always a bit of a tinkerer and I started off as a labourer.
"In those days Eddie and I were on a big learning curve as precision guidance was coming in and there weren't many people around with expertise.
"In some ways we're still on that curve moving from understanding the basic controllers, like the Farmscan 2400, to getting our heads around ISOBUS-compatible display screens and controllers."
Jenifer and Rod are confident as one of four boomsprayer manufacturers in WA, they can continue to service the market with their so-called tug-along models.
"It's a competitive market but sales are still strong and we have worked hard to build up a reputation of not only producing cost efficient and reliable boomsprayers but also after-sales service," Jenifer said.
According to Rod, a good company motto would be, 'we'll get it sorted and get you going'.
The pair is confident there's a bright future for trailed boomsprayers having combatted a rapid rise in self-propelled machines, where at one stage, machinery dealers were reluctant to trade trailed models.
"There's a good economic case for a trailed sprayer," Rod said.
"If you've got a good nurse system you can achieve the type of spraying hours you'd expect in an SP," he said.
The company's most popular model at the moment is its 10,000 litre capacity rear-steer model with boom options up to 48 metres.
"But we generally custom-make models to suit customer requirements," Jenifer said.
That sort of attention almost guarantees a boomsprayer that is going to last and there are still a lot of Hydra Boom models in operation notching more than 20 years service.
Hats off to WA manufacturing.
