Dallas Center IA 515-720-2463 | In a RE a while back, I made the comment that, ‘I have many spraying before many of you were born.’
Over the years on Machinery Talk there have been deals on the tractors people have owned, the cars people have owned, probably more.
So here is the ‘Bobby Greif Sprayer History’, from about 1955 to the present.
The first was a fence row sprayer that dad bought, he didn’t buy much. Roller pump, some kind of a pressure regulating deal, a handgun, and a some hose.
The sprayer was a Ford model T or A pickup box and rear axle that had been made into a trailer. The tank was several old 10-gallon milk cans.
I would fill the cans close to full with a hose, then dad would pour some 2-4D in each can. Put the lid on tight and to the fence row we would go. I drove the Ford 8N and dad ran the hand gun. Sometime he walked, sometimes he stood on the drawbar of the Ford. When a milk can went empty, just put the intake and return hoses in another can. When they all were empty, pour the little dap that was left in each can into the can with the hoses.
There was also one of those Boomjet boomless nozzles - The deal with five nozzles in a cluster, will cover about 40 feet or so. Your results will vary with the wind.
He used the Boomjet for spraying weeds in the pasture.
You can still buy that five nozzle deal, probably cost more $$$$ than that entire 1955 sprayer including the trailer.
I sure was glad dad got that thing. My older brother spent many days cutting fence row weeds with a scythe. My time with a scythe was coming. Those 20 acre fields made for a lot of fences.
About 1960 along came the first half way modern sprayer. This one had a boom!
Pretty sure it was a Century, yellow paint. A two wheeled deal, the tank was two 55 gallon barrels. Not just common old barrels, but brand new ones with some kind of plastic liner.
Again a roller pump and the hoses. Still had to switch the hoses when the first barrel was empty.
And there was a handgun for the fence rows.
I spent a lot of time on a John Deere 70 pulling that sprayer. Spraying 2-4D on corn with drops. This was after cultivating it three times and a rotary hoeing or two. Sure seemed like I was flying. Cannot remember if it took seven or nine rows each pass. Compared to a two row cultivator it was fast.
A few years later the two barreled Century was replaced by a Broyhill. This one had a 250 gallon tank, again plastic lined metal, but with intake and return fittings in the bottom of the tank - No more fooling with hoses! The boom was like the Century, held up with a real light chain on each side.
Still used mostly for 2-4D in big corn and fence rows. By then the Greif operation was banding dry granules with the planter. Sure were a lot of boxes on a four row planter - 14, four seed, four for rootworms, four for weed dope and two fertilizer.
Along comes Wonderful Treflan! If you grew soybeans before Treflan, I am sure you would agree that it was just wonderful.
The first two or three years dad hired a custom applicator. Two 90 horse tractor with 21’ disks would follow working it in. It had to be done RIGHT NOW.
The spray boom was about 50’. And one tractor and disk would have to follow the outer edge of the boom so the sprayer fellow would know where to drive next time - Pre GPS or foam.
That left about 30’ for the second disk to cover.
When the sprayer had to refill both tractors and disks would go back and get those narrow strips. But they never could keep up.
I remember dad telling me that tomorrow I was to get home from my job of making hot mix starter fertilizer at the Des Moines FS plant.
He didn’t say so but he meant no beer joint. He would have the 12-½’ disk on the D17 and I was to get those strips covered.
Between waiting for the sprayer, having the wind blow too hard when the sprayer was there. Always seemed to have tractor or disk problems when spraying, etc.
Dad decided to get his own incorp rig. Uncle Harold was a Broyhill dealer, so it was a Broyhill. This was about the time Sprayer Specialties was getting going a few miles away. Not many sprayer dealers in Central Iowa after that.
A 300 gallon 3-point. Don’t think I had ever seen or heard of a Ace pump before. The disk was a 21’ Oliver. My brother used it first on his almost new A-C 220. Couldn’t reach the control valve from inside the cab, so he shut the PTO off at headlands and ditches. This was before diaphragm check valve nozzle bodies.
Dad didn’t like the no shut off deal, so when he put the sprayer on his Oliver 2255 he did a little changing. The shutoff was one of those TeeJet Manual Directovalves. Set the selector on left, or right, or center, or L & C, or R & C, or L & R or All. Swing the lever forward for on, push it back 90 degrees for off.
Dad changed the bracket so that with the 3-point all the way up the valve was just below the opened rear window. He did a pretty good job, it was nice and easy to use and that handle never did hit the cab or window.
Sometime in the mid-70s I spent about $45- for my first electric solenoid valve. That was A-OK! It was about the same time we put a electric solenoid shutoff on our NH3 bar, sure beat pulling that darn rope.
18 acres to a tank. For water supply we used a 560 gallon steel tank, it was a brand new fuel barrel. But a 560 gallon tank will not fill a 300 gallon sprayer twice. And the water all came from town, lots of quarters.
Sutan and Atazine for corn. Treflan on the soybeans. 100 acres was a good big day.
A few years later I got a 1100 poly tank. Discovered why we seldom could do 18 acres without stopping to clean a nozzles or two, and cleaned all six each fill.
Those old sprayers had a lot of rusting steel fittings, besides what came from the tank. ’That plastic crap is no good’
I got my brand new White 2-155 with an air conditioner in 1978. I didn’t want to spray with that hot, dirty, loud Oliver. And I wanted to use a field cultivator instead of a disk.
Felt my 32’ field cultivator was to big for incorp, so I purchased a good used 26’ model.
Brother Lavern had been pulling a wagon mounted 500 gallon tank on a wagon gear behind his disk for several years. That is what I want to do.
Using an old wagon gear, I made a deal with two 4 by 6”, 4 by 4” for cross pieces, deck boards for the rear platform. It even had a two-step ladder.
For a tank I robbed a 400 gallon tank and cradle from the row crop sprayer. Switched it back and forth. For a rear hitch on the digger I used some 1 by 4” or so, old Oliver plow steel.
And a Ace 204 hydraulic pump. I did not like those long suction and return lines on my brothers rig.
Brother said, ’You got more money in hydraulic hose and pipe than I do in sprayer hose’.
I told dad that you cannot put a PTO pump on a 1-¾” PTO shaft.
It didn’t take me long running that hydraulic pump to start saying, ’There should be a law against PTO sprayer pumps’.
One of those control boxes with a master switch and three boom sections, a in-cab pressure gauge, and a control for a pressure regulating valve.
Pre sprayer controller, I have never owned a new pressure regulating valve. Did not see any reason to change pressure.
That was a whole lot of an improvement over the 3-point incorp sprayer. Night and day!
The next year I put a new 500 gallon tank and cradle on the wagon.
Pre 1985 I got a brand new Sprayer Specialties 750 gallon 3-wheeled deal to pull behind. Still using it today.
About 1980 I got a rope wick bean walking machine -
O Happy Day!!!
Not the 4” PVC pipe deal, but a steel framed deal with a 25 gallon tank. Front mount that I put on a Oliver 1650.
Cost about $500-, I think the PVC pipe deals could be built for less than $100-
I remember doing a little field of soybeans with that thing. Then waiting to see what happened. Pretty soon some corn was looking sick. Then all the V-corn was looking pretty poorly.
Dad said, ‘You killed ever darn corn plant in that field’.
I carried a couple squirt bottle for broadleaf weeds. I was in heaven. The best day ever was 80 acres, most days 40-60 acres.
For row crop spraying I used the boom on the 3-point sprayer, that was a joke. Dad got a used 400 gallon pull sprayer with another one of those held up with light twisted wire chain booms. It was better than the 3-point, but not much.
I wanted to use Basagram, but sure didn’t like the price.
Answer = Banders.
Got a new 35’ SS boom, cut some off each end and 12 banders.
Mounted it on the front of the One-Ninety XT with the deal for the wick-wiper. Pulled the 400 behind for the dope.
It was too much weight for that front mount, so I made a 3-point mount for the boom. Used the steel from a old Stan-Hoist Tiger Claw. Still pulled the 400. After a couple years the bander were put in the old hog house junk storage building, there are still there.
Then I started pulling the 750 3-wheeler instead of the 400.
Then I put the boom on the back of the 3-wheeler.
1995 I hired my soybeans drilled. So I got a foam marker for the 3-wheeler. Decided it was kinda stupid driving over beans using a 30’ boom, so for 1996 I got a new SS boom. Could switch it between 30’ for corn, 12 rows. For the drilled beans I was 51’ wide.
A year later I added a hydraulic height tower and suspension.
The drill fellow was too busy to do custom work so I was back to 30” soybeans until 2000 when I started double planting.
I think it was 1997 that I got my first spray controller, a Micro-Trak 3000. Put it in the White 2-105 for the row crop spraying.
Pretty sold on controllers, a year later I had another one in the 2-155 for incorp.
Bean spraying time in 2000 and my foam marker pump would not work. I went to Sprayer Specialties and got a new one.
They told me to take a Cultva GPS deal home and try it out. Bring it back when you are done for the year.
It was too wet to plow, so I had a couple days. Got the thing installed. Then I figured out how to use it from driving around on the grass around the barns.
After doing the first field with GPS I pulled up in the soybeans behind the machine shed. Then I yanked all that foam marker hose off and layed it down on the beans. Combined right over it that fall, didn’t pick it up until next spring.
Not quite as opposed to foam markers as I am to PTO pumps, but close.
The 3-wheeler was not very good spraying corn on a side hill.
So- Using a old NH3 bar, I made a fully mounted 12 row sprayer.
The tank and cradle is from that old 400 gallon.
And you better bet a Ace Hydraulic pump.
This rig is real nice for odd shaped fields.
Use it for corn only.
A year or two after building the full mount sprayer for corn, I was ready to quit using the 3-wheeler for any row crop work.
Got a used SS 500 gallon pull sprayer, walk-over wheels, 40’ manual fold. And it did not have a PTO pump for me to throw in the iron pile.
I put my hydraulic lift suspended boom on it. And a Ace 206 hydraulic pump, stuff for a MT 3000.
In my book a spray controller is part of the tractor. The sevro and flow meter are part of the sprayer.
And I had the axle extended out for 120” tread.
I have been spraying with single rear wheels at 120” tread for at least ten years.
A bigger tractor with single rear wheels at 60” is against the law on my farm!
This sprayer is used mostly to spray Roundup on soybeans. I have removed the little outer boom sections and sprayed 18 rows of corn. Just as soon use the old NH3 bar sprayer.
For 2009 I retired the Cultva and now have an Auto-Farm ATC. Probably have the steering next year.
War and Piece II and I didn’t even get into fence row sprayers after about 1970.
Or the change from a water truck and town water to driving home every time to a always full tank of my own water. |
Bobby Greif Sprayer History - Not War & Peace II
