What's going on here ?

Plenty of room to park under there...







Covers lots of area quickly, 83 acres in 4 hours, 60 and was 5 miles away.






3 weeks old, JD 4830 operator says it cost $275,000, came from south of here, maybe 70 miles away, said it took 2 1/2 hours, 30 m.p.h. Has side seat in the cab, so I rode around in it for a bit, has a refrigerated cup holder, he left a bottle of gatorade in there was cold days later. The application computer and gps mapping and auto pilot + all the other features, never seen anything like it before.

My friend a long time dairyman/farmer would have normally been there to show em the fields to spray, but he's in the hospital, with some serious issues, have no further information on him, hoping all works out, really did not expect to hear of this, but at least we got the spraying done without a hitch. But that's not all, knocked the exhaust off that car, hit a loose rock, farm road, well it was clear dang it...... thought I tore out the pan too !, Then well dummy, you shoulda just taken his truck to start with, had to for the last 60 acres, and behold, time for a rear wheel cylinder to burst... pedal to the floor with just enough to stop er.... then I see the darned local critters got my yet to be planted greens spring mix, lettuce..... got to laugh, well at least none of this can happen again tomorrow, just have to laugh, nor take another look under that car to see what I have to fix now

When I come up behind one of those on a back road I always wondered if I could scoot through underneath it. Now I know!

We"ve seen those big sprayers. Always wondered what they cost. Knew it would be a bundle.

Don"t think I would park my car under any piece of ag equipment.

Like anything else these days, lots of techno stuff in the cab.

Cool piece of equipment.

I was on the highway on Tuesday a passed a high clearance John Deere sprayer, but it was smaller than that one. I was tempted to drive my little Ford Ranger under and through it. When I got a lot closer I noticed that the cab of my pickup was too high and would not have fit through even if I would have had nerve enough to try such a stupid stunt.

Work boss used drive the weed dept. Kubota RTV900 spray rig between the posts on highway signs. Looks pretty neat to be able to do that.

I think one of the guys from this outfit said someone did that while traveling. The operator said, I'll bet your car would fit right under it, is said, it probably would, so we took some photos of it, the antenna did hit though, and if that front ladder was down, not going to work. Would be cool if you could carry a small vehicle like this under it if you had to road it far from the yard to spray a large job, whereas you have a ride back.

It was an education to ride along while he applied the material, it drops foam for markers, he showed me the overlap, and how the nozzles can be controlled, the thing is artificial intelligence, can drive itself, adjust the spray areas, he say's his job now is really just to fill er up. I can't imagine the size of a farm that could justify owning something like this, I forgot to ask what the acreage capacity was for it, was an interesting couple of hours, wish he used it on the oats, the tire tracks look less obtrusive and or damaging to the crops, + it is wider, vs the F-550 truck mounted rig they used 2 weeks prior.

Ford Ranger would be tight on this one, might make it but would be close, seems the suitcase weights and or up front there is less clearance, though I did drive right through, not something you see everyday, + the operator kind of influenced me to try it out and take a few shots, no harm in doing that I thought, that is till I went to show him the 1st 2 fields, and suffered some exhaustus-exitus, darned rock LOL !

For that kind of money you could buy an airplane and do 83 acres in 30 min

That makes our Hahn Hi-Boy from the 60's seem like it was a toy!

Ain't that the truth, I've seen em do the big apple orchards along the NYS Thruway with a single engine plane, really don't know much about that business of spraying crops, but sure seems like big $$$ on both sides of the fence.

Most coops around here have several of them. With a variety of row widths in corn and beans, they are made that the tread width can change hydraulically on the go, with GPS mapping, auto-steer, GPS nozzle controls- the machine knows where the end rows are, and can shut off nozzles on point rows so there is no overlap and double spraying. Easily more than an acre a minute, even in small fields.

That's about how he described what it can do, though no mention of the wheel spacing, looks like they adjust too. The thing with the overlap and nozzles shutting on/off in such a precise manner, is mind boggling at first glance, but with the computer and GPS, it's impressive, though you wonder what kind of service life you get out of the rig, do they hold up or become problematic like so many other electronic technology, dust and field conditions must have been taken into high consideration.

My renter bought a used unit, about 10 years old...then transferred his GPS, field mapping, yield mapping, autosteer, etc. All equipment transfers between tillage and planting tractors, sprayer, combine. Accuracy to within one inch- no overlaps or skips. Similar floaters applying dry fertilizer can be set up to change rates according to yield maps, on the go.