The solution for night crop-spraying...

Venta Global have a history of providing innovative lighting solutions across a variety of markets, but one area where the Venta name is becoming synonymous is the agricultural sector. It is now becoming increasing practice for farmers to carry out crop-spraying at night, due to a number of factors including lower wind and less spray drift. In addition to this, it is accepted that the chemicals tend to evaporate less quickly at night, the crops themselves are more susceptible to being sprayed when it is dark, and most importantly, some of the nuisance insects are only active at night. Whilst this has been accepted in farming circles for some years, lighting presented a problem, not only being able to see the end of the boom, but also checking for nozzle blockages. The standard worklamps fitted to the tractors not only were not powerful enough to illuminate the full length of the boom, but their light spread was often partly obscured by the boom, actually creating a shadow on the spray pattern. Venta Global were approached by one of the market-leading sprayer manufacturers to find a solution. These lamps had to be compact, waterproof to stand up to continual spray, and be robust enough for the demands of the agricultural industry, whilst providing an unobstructed illumination of the spray pattern. Venta worked closely with the sprayer manufacturer to come up with a cost-effective solution that met the customer’s requirements. The boom lighting system has been successfully installed onto a number of machines, and farmers are reaping the benefits. Even if they are spraying during the day, as the evenings draw in there is no need for them to leave a field half-finished…they can simply flick on the boom lights and complete the job, saving them time and money. Venta is now further developing the boom lighting concept to create a ‘plug-and-play’ harness system for the boom lights for ease of fitment, further cementing their relationship with the agricultural industry.