The berry exciting Silvan Airboom

For a Western Australian strawberry grower, a specially developed Silvan Australia airboom spray solution has hit the spot

T & L Produce Marketing farms strawberries across 40 hectare property outside Gin Gin, north of Perth.

The challenge they set for Silvan was to design a machine that provided multi-row spray coverage and could achieve close coverage of the strawberry plants by getting under the plastic row tunnels.

“The Silvan research and development team at our head office in Melbourne came up with the solution that meets the growers’ needs,” Silvan WA account manager Nick Dicembre says.

“Silvan had earlier developed a similar width boom sprayer for a Queensland strawberry grower so this one is the second of its build type and the first application of this technology in a row cop situation in Western Australia,” Dicembre adds.

In terms of features, the sprayer offers a 12m boom that Silvan says covers seven rows of strawberries, while the power take-off sprayer is operated at four to five kilometres an hour.

Dicembre says this gives a quicker coverage as the original sprayer boom that was in use could only cover five rows.

Tank-size, the PTO sprayer has a 1100-litre Polytuff tank and is powered by a Nobili Airboom spray unit as an air assist sprayer.

Local dealer Wanneroo Agricultural Machinery was brought in to make some adjustments after the first in-field experiences, such as extending the length of the delivery tubes.

“In short, we extended the length of the delivery tubes to increase the effective reach into the plants and especially beneath the plastic growing tunnels,” Dicembre says.