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| Matt Tatham, area sales manager for Greenfields Agricultural Holdings, and Leon Martins of Silvix Enviroquip with the multi-spraying system that has been developed in PMB to ease the life of foresters, cane farmers, greens keepers and even chicken farmers. |
THE weekend’s agricultural show at Eston saw the launch of a unique
go-anywhere, spray-anything system designed to ease the life of foresters, cane
farmers, green keepers and even chicken farmers.
Its Pietermaritzburg-based designers, Leon Martens and Julian
Pybus, both shareholders in Silvix Enviroquip, said the hard-working little ute
was like a mobile Swiss army knife designed to meet companies’ growing need to
mechanise.
Martens said the end result was the product of many man hours
invested by Silvix Enviroquip, Quadmaster and Greenfields Agricultural
Holdings
“We combined the best systems that are available to make a highly
mobile tool and have a patent pending,” said Martens.
Colin Scott of Quadmaster in Merrivale assembled all the systems on
the back of a JCB Workmax Forester utility.
Martens said the show piece, which has all the systems a forester
could desire, costs R265 000. This includes a three-nozzle wind box, which
sprays a non-selective weed control and at the same time two selective chemicals
over the tree-line. “This normally requires three operations,” said
Martens.
On the back a boomless nozzle can spray a 10-metre swath during
pre-plant operations.
For sugar cane applications, there is an extended boom with an
eight-metre spray swath.
Booms on the side also allow game farmers to spray fence
lines.
A portable high pressure cleaner also enables cleaning of
machinery, piggeries, chicken houses and trucks.
Martens said when the little ute was not spraying, the three tanks
on the back could be linked to create an instant foam-based fire fighting
system. “The foam effectively doubles the 300 litres of water on the
back.”
Martens said the go-anywhere abilities of the unit have enabled
them to start developing tracer lines for fire breaks that use no chemicals.
“Apart from being light on the road and pocket, this unit enables us to be more
environmentally friendly,” he said.
Matt Tatham, area manager of Greenfields Agricultural Holdings,
said they provided a JCB Workmax 800 D for the prototype “because it is the best
ute for the job”. The Workmax has a 4x4 drivetrain, a variable high or low speed
CVT transmission and difflock.
Tatham said the 784 cc three-cylinder Yanmar diesel engine uses
only 1,5 litres of diesel per hour, while carrying its full pay load of 600
kg.
