Self-Propelled Swather Doubles As Sprayer

Self-Propelled Swather Doubles As Sprayer SWATHERS Swathers 22-4-2 The first thing Lonnie Butler did three years ago after buying a new $45,000 Case-IH 8830 self-propelled swather - before he even made one round in the field - was to build a "quick tach" 62-ft. sprayer boom that lets him use the swather to spray all his crops. Butler, who farms near Florence, Ontario, says getting double use out of the swather has increased its value greatly. "Using one power unit to do two jobs eliminated the need for a separate sprayer and tractor to operate it," says Butler, who bought the swather equipped with a 15-ft. draper header. "The boom is in front of me so I don't have to turn around all the time. The cab is equipped with a chemical filter. It takes only about a half hour to switch from the swather header to the boom." Butler built a steel subframe and had Precision Industries of Kitchener, Ontario, custom build a 5-section, hydraulic fold boom for it. The subframe supports a 300-gal. tank as well as a "quick fill" fresh water hand wash tank and a chemical fill tank equipped with a fresh water jug rinser. The sprayer is operated by a hydraulic-driven pump and is equipped with a Raven rate controller, foam marking system, and end-of-boom fence row spray nozzle with its own separate control. The cab is equipped with lights for spraying at night. "It has excellent visibility, stability, flotation, and maneuverability," says Butler. "I use the machine 60 percent of the time for spraying and the rest of the time for swathing canola, clover seed, and oats. I even use it to spray 28% nitrogen on wheat. We also use it to do custom spraying and cover about 1,800 acres every year. "I paid $27,000 for the sprayer. I don't own an 80 to 100 hp tractor equipped with a cab because I generally don't need one that small. If I hadn't come up with this idea I would've had to pay about $25,000 for a pull-type sprayer and $45,000 for a used tractor. "The zero turn windrower allows me to drive into a corner, back up, and turn right around. The machine is very lightweight so it doesn't compact my heavy clay soil like a big commercial floater would. With its 21-in. wide front tires it can go into real wet soil. It works great for top dressing wheat. A flotation applicator can top spread fertilizer only 35 ft. wide so it leaves almost twice as many wheel tracks as my 62-ft. sprayer. "All the boom sections have separate controls for both hydraulic and sprayer functions. I can't use a tank bigger than 300 gal. because the subframe wouldn't support the weight. Also, a bigger tank would block my view from the cab. "The Precision Industries sprayer is equipped with nitrogen-charged hydraulic accumulators so I can go 7 to 8 mph across harvested corn stalks without bouncing. There's one accumulator on the 15-ft. wide center boom and one on each wing. "All boom sections are equipped with electronic shutoff valves so I can independently shut off the flow of chemicals to each section. If I want I can fold up one end of the sprayer, shut off the chemicals to it, and spray with the remaining sections. I can work down to where I'm spraying only with the 15-ft. center section." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Lonnie Butler, RR 3, Florence, Ontario, Canada N0P 1R0 (ph 519 692-4020).

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