Having fallen into financial difficulty last year, Lincolnshire sprayer maker Chafer has been brought back from the brink by a trio of new owners.

Trading as Nexus Chafer, they plan to return the company to its former glory, while injecting some fresh designs and technology into its product range.

They’ve got a solid base to build from, with a well-respected selection of self-propelled and trailed sprayers, as well as Horstine granular applicators.

See also: Driven trailed sprayer axle cuts downtime for contractor

Business facts

Tom Franks © James Andrews

• Operator Tom Franks
• Company Conant Farming
• Farmed area 3,000ha
• Crops grown Broad range of cereals, oilseeds and pulses

Sitting at the apex of the firm’s tractor-drawn line-up is the Sentry.

Standout features of this high-spec machine include a stainless-steel tank with internal baffles to prevent liquid surging, a hydraulic centrifugal spray pump and the option of steel booms up to 42m wide.

Pulse-width modulation, e-plumbing and Norac automatic boom levelling are also on the extensive options list.

Boom levelling sensor © James Andrews

One established Sentry customer is Rutland-based Conant Farming. It has been running a 6,000-litre model with 36m G-series boom since 2022, alongside a six-year-old Fendt Rogator.

Together, they cover some 3,000ha of owned and contract-farmed arable ground across the East Midlands, applying both agrochemicals and liquid fertiliser.

Farm foreman and operator Tom Franks gives us the lowdown.

What made you choose a Chafer Sentry?

In 2016, the company bought a second-hand 5,000-litre Chafer Sentry to run alongside the Challenger Rogator we had at the time.

We were seriously impressed by the build quality and performance so, when the time came to replace it in 2022, it was an easy decision to get the same again.

Another reason was that we got such good backup from our dealer, Chandlers, and really quick parts delivery from Chafer.

Things went slightly awry when the company went into administration last year and the factory locked down. But, thankfully, we managed to source parts from dealer stock until the new owners got things back up and running.

This machine is larger than the last one, with a 6,000-litre tank, and it’s considerably more sophisticated.

Did you spec any extras?

The big one is the Raven Hawkeye pulse-width modulation (PWM) system, which the trade-in of our old sprayer only just paid for.

Although it was a substantial outlay, it’s made a big improvement to our spraying accuracy and I wouldn’t want to go back to a conventional setup.

The individual nozzle control and turn compensation is very slick and means the boom puts on chemical as evenly when going around a corner as it does on the straights.

And the consistent droplet size, regardless of forward speed, means our applications are more accurate and we have a lower risk of drift. I can cruise along at 14-15kph and tolerate windier conditions than I could with a regular setup.

We’re also applying liquid fertiliser and some pesticides at variable rates using prescription maps. This includes zero-rate zones where no application is required, which saves on inputs.

The PWM system allows us to apply variable-rate applications in 3m sections, which means we can theoretically be putting on 12 different rates across the boom simultaneously.

E-plumbing is another option that saves me a lot of time. It’s not that much faster than conventional taps when filling using the induction hopper, but it comes into its own when washing out.

Plumbing controls © James Andrews

Rather than send clean water around the various circuits manually, I can programme a cycle into the screen and leave it to get on with the job.

This can be varied according to how thorough a wash-out I need, and I can trigger it to run more than one cycle if needed. While it’s doing its thing, I can be tidying up my cans or writing up my records so that I’m ready to launch straight into the next job.

Other add-ons include Norac UC7 active roll boom levelling, LED boom lights and an air purge system that means I can quickly blast liquid out of the boom and spray lines.

It’s also got two sets of wheels, so we’re running on 650 tyres when it’s wet and 480s when the crops get taller.

How has it performed?

In four years, it’s covered more than 31,000ha and has given us very little trouble.

The only notable breakdowns have been with the PWM system. There are several daisy-chained wiring looms along the boom that send signals to the nozzle bodies and we’ve had a couple of sections of this play up.

It’s easy to diagnose, as all nozzles past that point will stop working, so Chandlers’ fitter has soon had us back up and running.

The little poppets in the nozzles also wear over time, though these are fairly cheap and easy to replace, and we’ve had a couple of nozzle control valves go which cost about £200 each.

Build quality of the sprayer itself is excellent and it’s stood up well to the heavy workload. We have had a couple of small cracks in the boom, but the fact that it’s made from steel means it’s simple to weld up.

Paint quality also seems to be good, as it hasn’t suffered too badly with corrosion from the liquid fertiliser.

I’ve been impressed with the Norac levelling, which I can generally trust to get on with the job of setting and maintaining boom height. The only time I might have to take over is if a wheel drops in a hole and suddenly throws it off balance.

Cleverly, Chafer has shaped the stainless-steel tank so that most of the weight is low down, which makes it really stable on sloping ground.

Shaped tank © James Andrews

And because it’s narrower at the top, the booms tuck in neatly so that there’s less risk of clipping them on a tree when driving down narrow lanes.

Filling rate is about 1,000 litres/min, which is more than fast enough for me when I’m tipping cans into the induction hopper.

We don’t have a closed transfer system for smaller containers, but we’ve got a Wisdom system that draws out of the top of IBCs, as well as a connector that allows us to suck from the bottom tap when using products such as manganese.

There’s also a Vegcraft pre-mixing bowser on the farm, which dramatically improves efficiency. In fact, it’s almost as good as having a third sprayer on the fleet.

This supports both the Fendt Rogator and the Chafer Sentry – when it’s following me around, I can get so much more done in a day.

Rather than having a dedicated control box in the cab, the plan was to run everything through isobus.

Most functions come through on the screen of my John Deere 6215R and they’re easy to view and adjust.

However, for some reason Chafer couldn’t get the live tank readout to play ball, which means I’ve got a separate screen rigged up with a Solsteer bridge to connect to the tractor.

Screens in cab © James Andrews

This works well enough, and means I can see and adjust more settings at a glance, but it does add a bit more clutter to the cab.

There are a few other bits and pieces that could be improved, too.

For starters, there’s no proper place to put the fill pipe, so I have to climb up the steps and tie it to the handrail. And there’s no suction filter, so I need to make sure all the water supplies I use are clean.

I’m also not that keen on the fact the rinse tank is filled by the main spray pump. I always top this up first before any chemical goes into the machine, but there is a small risk of contamination.

Newer models have a separate pump, which is a much better setup.