The Kehoe’s — Martin Senior, Willie-John, Martin Junior and Eleanor — are well-known for their ploughing skills with many titles won between them.

For the 2012 season, the Kehoe’s bought a new, Italian-built, Bargam Grimpeur self-propelled sprayer to replace an existing Bargam which they have had for a number of years. The Grimpeur is a different machine to the Bargam MAC it replaces, however. The older machine had a mid-mounted cab and a bonnet out in front and was hydrostatically driven.

Willie-John explained: “We bought our first Bargam in 2006 through Maurice Kelly, Kelly’s of Borris. Back then, we looked at our spraying needs and realised it would require a dedicated tractor fitted with a sprayer, so we decided to go down the self-propelled route. We had the acreage to justify it.” Of the earlier sprayer, he said: “It was good but we had a few problems.”

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In 2012, the Kehoe’s changed their first self-propelled sprayer and stayed with the Bargam brand citing both price and specification as deciding factors for remaining with the Italian marque. Grimpeur translates to ‘climber’ and it is the specification of the Grimpeur that Willie-John liked. “With the mechanical axles, it is better able to travel in the wet, on hills and there are brakes on the axle. This year was wet and we were able to travel irrespective of the ground conditions.”

Powering the Grimpeur is a six-cylinder, 175hp Iveco/FPT engine. The Grimpeur’s transmission is a hydro-mechanical unit in that a hydrostatic pump is driven by the engine and connected to a hydrostatic motor. This drives a two speed mechanical gearbox. Two shafts from the gearbox then take the drive to two conventional axles at the front and rear of the sprayer.

Gary Daly from Farmec Ireland Ltd, who is the agent for Bargam in Ireland, said that both the gearbox and axles are Dana-Spicer units while the hydrostatic element of the transmission is manufactured by Sauer-Danfoss.

In the cab, there is a drive-handle similar to what you see in a combine harvester or self-propelled harvester. This enables forward speed to be infinitely varied within two mechanical gear ranges and two hydrostatic gear ranges. This gives the Grimpeur four speed options in total.

The hydrostatic element was an important feature on the Grimpeur, according to Willie-John. He said: “With hydrostatic, it still has the ability to vary speed.”

In these times of extremely high fuel prices, the Grimpeur has an edge over completely hydrostatically driven machines as Willie-John explained. “Because it has mechanical axles with its own brakes on board you can run it at lower revs, 1,400, 1,500rpm and use less fuel. Whereas the other one (hydrostatic motors at each wheel) you had to run it flat out all the time.”

With four high and equal sized wheels, traction is better as well, Willie-John said in comparison to a tractor and trailed machine. “You would travel a lot of ground you wouldn’t have a hope of travelling with a tractor and trailed sprayer, especially this year,” he said. The Grimpeur cab is perched out on the front of the machine. Kehoe’s sprayer operator Mark Smith said: “Visibility is a lot better with the cab out in front; you don’t have a bonnet to look out over.”

Willie-John added: “The cab is basically the same as the sprayer it replaced but the control system is now all Müller instead of Bargam.”

The Müller unit controls all of the sprayer functions, including hydraulic functions and is linked to GPS to provide headland management. It shuts off the sprayer boom as a whole or in sections, depending on the angle the booms meets the headlands.

Bargam use a Ramsey air system instead of electric controls to operate the spraying functions, such as spraying pressure and boom section on-off. According to Mark Smith, the Müller controls incorporating GPS work very well and are easy to set up and used.

Kehoe’s sprayer is fitted with 24m booms and a 3,500-litre tank. There is a 300-litre clean water tank on-board for washing out, plus a 30-litre induction hopper for mixing/adding chemicals. A small hand-wash tank is also provided.

Out on the boom, Kehoe’s have opted for four-way ARAG nozzle holders and on the new sprayer, there is extra protection of the nozzles and pipes at the boom ends. This is a simple flat plate in front of the boom out at the boom ends and, according to Mark, provides very effective protection out at the vulnerable boom ends which the old sprayer didn’t have.

While Mark does the majority of spraying with the Grimpeur, Willie-John is the sprayer-sub if Mark has to tend to other jobs for Kehoe’s. “The cab itself is good enough, this one has a passenger seat but is still a little on the tight side,” said Willie-John. Some modifications were done in-cab to the sprayer when it arrived in Kehoe’s, including the addition of a reversing camera, raising the right hand console to a more suitable height and the fitting of a mounting bracket for the Müller controls and reversing camera screen together.

Mark brought me for a drive around the block. It was soon clear that the front mounted cab is a big advantage on our smaller rural roads for seeing and manoeuvring at junctions. For road travel, front wheel steering is selected but as Mark explained (and demonstrated): “On some of the smaller roads, you have to switch to four-wheel steer to make the turn in one go.” This was done quickly and simply, and if he hadn’t told me, I would not have noticed because the transition between steering modes was very smooth.

The sprayer was sitting on 13.6R48 wheels, so it was quite narrow making it suitable for rural roads. Willie-John has plans to kit it out with 520/34’s for winter cereals.

The left hand mirror has been substituted for a cheaper replacement option because of its vulnerable status. The Grimpeur has a top speed of 50kph, so getting from field to field is much faster according to Mark who travels within a 40km (25-mile) radius of the farm.

Under body clearance is a little less than the hydrostatic machine but Willie-John said that he still managed to go in on high maize crops without a problem.

Kehoe’s spray a range of produce including cereals, maize, potatoes, broccoli and carrots. The latter two for South-East Vegetables, who according to Willie-John is one of the largest producers of carrots in the country.

Self-propelled sprayers do not come cheap. Willie-John estimated: “Typically you’d need in excess of 10,000 acres to justify a self-propelled sprayer.” In total, Kehoe’s Grimpeur covered around 12,000 acres this year so more than justified its purchase.

BARGAM GRIMPEUR SPECIFICATIONS

IVECO/FPT six-cylinder engine KW129 (175hp).

Four speed transmission: Two hydrostatic through.

SAUER-DANFOSS hyd drive to a DANA 2 Speed gearbox.

Top speed: 50km/hr

Axles: Dana-Spicer giving four wheel steer and braked front axle.

Hydrostatic ‘braking’ central hydro unit

Hydro-pneumatic front and rear suspension.

Ground clearance: 780mm (depending on wheels).

Polyethylene tank: 4,000 litres

Air-conditioned ROPS driver’s cab with activated carbon filter, adjustable rear-view mirrors, pneumatic seat, stereo system with CD and extra sound proofing.

Steel fully hydraulic boom at 24m with independent boom geometry.

Three-way jets with choice of nozzles.

Parallelogram hydraulic height adjustment.

Boom shock absorber with hydro pneumatic accumulator on height adjustment parallelogram.

Boom electro-hydraulic control with joystick.

Boom sections on Müller joystick

High quality powerful 30-litre mixer hopper equipped with high pressure can washer.

Clear water tank with system cleaning device operated electrically from the cab.

Diaphragm pump for spraying and agitation.

Indicator kit for diaphragm damage and oil leakage.

Clean water to induction hopper.

Hydraulic ladder.

Weight: 7,500kg unladen — weight distribution from 48% to 52%.

Wheels 270/95 R48 (1710 x 284) with bolted flange.

Müller basic terminal computer with Müller GPS c/w

Auto section shut off.

Nine-section water controls.

Air controls for liquid system.

Full line purge recirculation system (with air control system).

400-litre/minute pump for spraying and filling.

List price: €125,000, plus VAT.