A WILTSHIRE arable farm manager, won the accolade of Farm Sprayer Operator of the Year 2018 at last week’s Cereals event.

Andrew Woolley won the prestigious competition last week during the Spray and Sprayers element of the event, and is responsible for spraying the arable cropping for Puckshipton Farms, Marden.

He operates a 24m mounted Lemken sprayer, with front and rear mounted combination tanks to give a balanced unit with 3000-litre capacity.

Although he has been spraying for more than 35 years, he impressed the judges by his innovative and professional approach to the job.

One of his tips is to mount water sensitive paper on fencing stakes to assess how the spray is penetrating the crop, and adjusting his techniques to get desired results.

He also uses two white boards to monitor his spray stock – one in store and a portable one so that he can cross products off as they are used up. This is also kept outside the store, in a safe place, in case of emergencies, such as a fire.

The competition’s sponsor, Syngenta’s application specialist, Scott Cockburn, said: “Having been a finalist on two previous occasions, Andrew demonstrated consistently outstanding skills and ability to constantly improve. He works to very high standards to achieve the best possible results and proved a worthy winner by demonstrating that best practice can deliver efficient, cost effective and, above all, safe crop spraying.”