New design for Goldacres G8-S3 sprayer
Originally published in Farm Weekly 22 January 2026.
Goldacres G8-S3 on demo in Esperance.
McIntosh & Son Esperance will deliver two Goldacres G8 Crop Cruiser Series 3 units to Esperance grain growers in late January, the first time Goldacres' latest iteration of their Sprayer will be delivered in Western Australia. The new models aren’t a case of slightly-enhanced features.
McIntosh & Son, Esperance branch sales manager Brad Gray said the Goldacres G8-S3 represented a redesign from the ground up.
Last June, a few McIntosh & Son Southern Group representatives and Esperance growers were invited to Goldacres' manufacturing base in Ballarat, Victoria to preview and test drive the first of the G8-S3 Sprayers.
"Goldacres is a great Australian company, and they listen to what farmers want and adapt with the times," Mr Gray said.
"The G8-S3 has been redesigned to fit the 8000 litre tank but also give the high clearance that we require for some of the canola," Mr Gray said.
It retains the same simple driveline, but the Goldacres G8-S3 has replaced the six-speed Allison transmission, a feature that had served the Australian brand well for years, with an 8-speed ZF transmission.
"It'll give a smoother transition through the gears as you're spraying," Mr Gray said.
A new cab is a big part of the redesign for maximum operator comfort and convenience.
"They've incorporated a hot tank that sits outside the three-point linkage arms, which allows the operator to run dual arms, giving stability to blanket spraying and spot spraying; or even just to go spot spraying, especially at this time of year," he said.
"The Goldacres G8-S3 uses Weedetect Bilberry® system, allowing you to spray green-on-brown, or later in the year, with green-on-green.
"Once you've got the algorithms and you've paid for the systems, then that's it, you can just keep on going for as long as you like."
Boom options include a TriTech RiVX boom, 36 metres and 42m; and a TriTech V boom, 45m or 48m with three spray widths at 20m, 36m or 48m.
Adoption of spot spraying
There are a few grain growers throughout Esperance who are adopting spot spraying, Mr Gray said, and more are picking it up every year as word of its potential benefits, like saving on chemical usage.
For example, with blanket spraying, an operator would have to fill a tank with thousands of litres of chemicals, but a spot spray could use just 1000L for the whole day.
"We're also seeing growers move into the drone market as well, so it's an ever-evolving target," he said.
Grain grower Hugh Norris, who crops with his parents, Pete and Wendy, at Fairfax Farms, in Geraldton, said they run an "average size" operation of approximately 2000 hectares of wheat, canola, lupin and oats.
"It's about sizes of scale, to some extent," Mr Norris said.
"If you're a farmer doing fallow, and obviously the summer spraying is when it's most effective – particularly if you're a farmer in the Pindar area – who are leaving crops out for a rotation, then (spot spraying) is definitely highly effective and worth every cent.
"But for us, particularly with the cost of technology, you'd have to rely on a lot of summer rain to make that profitable, whereas the bit of summer rain we do get, we can hit it with a blanket spray and we're still out in front."