Alan Grant ‘View From The Cab’ – RB35 testimonial.
We visited Alan Grant at Skillymarno, near Fraserburgh at the end of July. Alan, along with brother David and nephew Scott, are arable farmers. Whilst we joined Alan in the cab of his treasured combine, he gave give us his thoughts on farming, his recent competition victory and his beloved Bateman sprayer.
Thanks for giving us some of your time here today; could you tell us a little bit about Skillymarno?
“We grow our own crops and have 3 different contract farming partnerships – we contract spray for several other customers. For the 2020 season, the areas grown were 170ha winter barley, 100ha each of oilseed rape, oats and winter wheat and 630ha of spring barley.”
Congratulations on your recent success in the RNAS competition again this year can you tell us about that?
“Aye, yes, thank you, we placed 1st with our Spring Barley ‘Laureate’ this year and we were awarded 3rd place with our crop of ‘Jackal’ in the winter wheat.”
You’re always pretty successful in these competitions; what do you put your success down to?
“I would say experience, a good eye and my Bateman. With 40 years of spraying under my belt, I wouldn’t consider any other make of sprayer.”
What do you like about your new RB35?
“It has great ground clearance, maneuverability and weight distribution with top end technology from Agleader. I also like the Bateman Boom Levelling which is very good, the visibility I get with the new cab and the wheel track adjustment read out being in the cab”
You’ve been a valued customer of ours for a number of years and this would be your third Bateman Sprayer that we know of?
“Aye, my third since 2004. It’s also my fert spreader, with the accurate dribble bars.”
We’ve spoken to a fellow Bateman owner and neighbour of yours and we were discussing COVID-19. We touched upon parts and service, how would you rate us, out of interest?
“Outstanding! The office is always very helpful on the phone and the parts tend to arrive the next day, even all the way from Devon and even with all of the problems with the lockdown side of things. We have used your service engineers and we get great support locally from CT Scott when we need it. So great machine, great support.”
How about nozzles – what’s your nozzle of choice these days?
“With this new RB35, I am a convert to Lechler! We’ve fitted Lechler IDTA 03 – 120 Ceramic. Typically, we’ll spray 135L/ha at 12 kmh.”
Finally, how would you sum up your Bateman?
“Looking after 1100ha of crops from pre-emergence to harvest I need the year-round reliability that I get from my Bateman sprayer. We opted for the ‘Accurate’ dribble bars, which affords us the additional benefit of using the Bateman as our fertiliser spreader. Our RB35 has great ground clearance, manoeuvrability and weight distribution; I wouldn’t consider any other make of sprayer”.
—
Would you like to book a demo? Contact us today and arrange for the Bateman Demonstration Team to visit your farm.
Download our latest brochure
Our PDF brochure features details on our full range of self propelled crop sprayers.
