We love celebrating the highly-skilled and hard-working people who make up our industry — but even the best of the best has their Achilles heel. For Steve Murray farming in Coomandook, South Australia has had many highs and lows, but there’s one piece of machinery that’s consistently tripped him up over the years.
“I’ve been doing mixed farming, with sheep and crops for most of my life and in that time, I’ve seen a lot of new technology and machinery come along. There’s one thing in particular that seems to attract disaster with me, and that’s a boom spray. These things have changed a lot in the way we farm, but boy, they’ve also given me grief,” Steve begins.
“I’m known for rushing into things a little bit and sometimes that means breaking things — especially boom sprays! Once, I hit a high emu fence and bent it up; I’ve hit an almond tree, a mulberry tree and lots of fences — to the stage where the boom spray I was operating was an absolute disgrace,” Steve confesses.
“Most of the time, I’ve just fixed it up myself, but about 15 years ago, I decided that enough was enough, and it was time to get it done properly, so I took it to an expert. Mick Judd at Geranium is a fantastic engineer who’s known for fixing up machinery for everyone who breaks it like me. So, I took my very dented, out-of-shape boom spray to him and he did a major repair, a super job — fixed it right up so it looked brand new. He was proud of the result, I was proud, everyone was proud.
“I was chuffed and brought it home, ready to finally use this good-looking bit of machinery out in the field. I set it up in the yard, all ready to use, folded it out and with a big smile on my face, drove it forward. I was excited! But I’d only gone a few metres before I hit the wood tank and the diesel tank and bent it all back to where it was before. I’d completely forgotten to fold it all up before driving it out to the field — I couldn’t believe it!
“I got out and looked at the disaster. My spruced-up boom was a mess… again. You could say I was a tad disappointed and I sat down and cried while I dialled Mick’s number to tell him the news. Mick was a little more philosophical about it all and just said, ‘Well, Steve, if it’s going to happen to anybody, it’s going to happen to you,’” he laughs.
So, I fixed it up again myself and eventually tried to trade it in. I guess it was no surprise that it was in such bad condition, that no one would take it, so it’s still sitting in my shed. I went on to buy another boom from Ramsey Bros — I haven’t wrecked it yet, but it will happen. There’s no doubt,” Steve laughs.
