MORE than a decade ago Sam Von Dadelszen decided to purchase his own spraying gear so he could spray when he wanted and when the weather allowed without having to rely on contractors.
In 2020 he upgraded his sprayer to a new Hustler Applic8r mounted boom sprayer with a hydraulic-folding boom.
Mr Von Dadelszen farms more than 1400 hectares in Central Hawke's Bay, New Zealand.
The region is renowned for its horticulture, with large orchards and vineyards on the plains.
In the hilly parts of the region sheep and cattle farming predominates, with forestry blocks in the roughest areas.
Mr Von Dadelszen runs sheep, beef cattle and a few dairy cows.
He originally chose to move all the spraying work in-house instead of hiring a contractor because working with a contractor offered limited flexibility and the weather window for spraying at this time of the year is small - the Hawke's Bay region is very windy.
"It's been a lot more convenient and our crops are a lot better than what they used to be," Mr Von Dadelszen said.
He sprays around 300ha of pastures and crops a year.
In 2020, Mr Von Dadelszen looked at replacing his old sprayer.
It has served the farm well, but the unit had a very heavy large boom on it.
"You'd get a bit of cracking, especially when we're doing a lot of our hill country and rougher work," Mr Von Dadelszen said.
"So we were having to do quite a lot of continual repairs and maintenance on it."
It was easy for Mr Von Dadelszen to invest in a Hustler Applic8r mounted boomsprayer as a replacement because he already owned Hustler products.
"I'm certainly aware of the Hustler brand, we've got two Hustler bale feeders," he said.
"When I was making some enquiries about a sprayer, a friend of mine bought a Hustler a number of years earlier and had a great run with it."
Mr Von Dadelszen said he chose Hustler for "a number of reasons".
- A lighter yet stronger boom "which we found a lot easier because we're doing a lot of hill country work - it's taken a bit of pressure off the tractor especially getting uphill and it just made life a little bit easier."
- A bigger capacity with three model sizes to choose from.
- Lower to the ground for easier filling with careful tank/chassis integration keeping it compact and ultra-low.
- A unique agitation system (Hustler MixMax) that "allows us to fill up the tank of water especially when using foamier products and then put the products in - (we) just turn on the agitation system, we know it's been well mixed up without a whole lot of product coming out of the top of the tank".
- A generous sump size is all part of the design so that you can spray on steep terrain without sucking air and leaving missed patches, the sprayer empties the entire tank even when operating on the steepest of terrain.
So far, Mr Von Dadelszen is thrilled with his Hustler boom sprayer.
"We've done around 300ha with it," he said.
"We haven't had any issues, it's been very reliable and I'd certainly recommend Hustler for anyone who's looking at a new sprayer, or upgrading a sprayer."
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