Long-standing South Canterbury spray business AM Scannell is now in new hands with Clayton Kinsman taking over the company just prior to Christmas and now trading as Scannell Spraying.
Clayton Kinsman was lucky enough to obtain the continued support from Chris Casey as an experienced applicator, with the added bonus of knowing all the clients and their properties well. Clayton is also a well experienced spray applicator with more than 10,000 hours in the seat.
“However new areas and new terrain certainly puts an exciting challenge to me in the meanwhile,” he says.
Clayton has been getting around Tony’s existing clients since December, and will soon begin developing his own new client base before the main work load returns in the spring.
He says he believes his clients are looking for the timely completion of their spraying and for Scannell Spraying to make a good and tidy job at reasonable cost. Part of this is the cleaning of the sprayer to ensure no cross contamination.
“We’ve got to keep an eye on what we’re spraying because the sprayer has to be decontaminated before going on to a different crop with different chemicals,” Clayton says.
“There is a bit of work in that and the best way is to coordinate our jobs to save some running around.”
The same is true for the location of jobs. South Canterbury is a large area and there are efficiencies to be gained by coordinating jobs in certain areas to save on the down time between jobs. Meanwhile Clayton is working on the few teething issues he has come across since December.
“Access to plentiful clean water is a problem for some of our clients and this can turn into a dreaded health and safety issue, depending on how we get access to the water,” he says. “There are really simple solutions going forward however, so it’s just a matter of working with the clients.”
Clayton says AM Scannell has built a wonderful client base over the years and did a very good job servicing them.
The equipment itself has been extremely well looked after and is well equipped with GPS self steer in the two larger 24m machines, one with auto section control, and the two 4wd trucks which have 18.5m booms are also GPS equipped with auto section shutoff.
Clayton’s challenge going forward is to try to get the smaller units on self steer. “Trying to get the weather to play its part will always be a challenge in our game but I am yet to find technology to sort mother nature,” he says.
“The technology out there nowadays is amazing and allows the applications to be put where required without wastage from overlaps, misses, and the like.”
Clayton would like to take this opportunity to thank all of his clients for their continued support and looks forward to working with them all in the future.
This article was brought to you in association with the following businesses…
- Scannell Spraying Limited
- Ford Simpson Ltd Chartered Accountants
- Ashley Electronics
- Turnbull Grain and Seed
