Duk And Coverage

According to Dennis Roth, ag location manager for Agriliance–Wilco LLC in Mount Angel, OR, the outlet was in search of an additional sprayer for its operations back in the late 1990s, but wasn’t in the market for a brand new model. As luck would have it, one of the cooperative’s grower-customers had an old Rears Duk unit from 1993 that he was planning to sell.

“Considering what we needed at the time, the Duk was perfect — durable and versatile, with the right design for us to make it our own,” says Roth.

Once the sale was complete, the facility made a few changes to the Duk. A simple cab was added to protect the operator and the unit was fitted for a dry fertilizer spinner box to be able to apply crop nutrients during the busy spring planting season. At that point, adds Roth, the Duk was already equipped with a 525-gallon stainless steel product tank, 60-foot spray booms, and a 75-hp Perkins diesel engine.

Since 1999, says Roth, the refurbished unit — affectionately nicknamed “The Rubber Duk” by the custom application crew — has logged countless hours working the crop fields of west central Oregon. “It’s a real easy machine to operate and doesn’t give us too much trouble to maintain,” he says. “All in all, picking up the Duk was a great bargain for us.”