This year's Washington Association of Wheat Growers "Wheat College" was held in the Three Rivers Convention Hall, Kennewick, WA., 4/28/17. The Three Rivers facility is a great venue. I found the program interesting. Attendance was low. I counted ≈55 total (staff, speakers, producers). I'm guessing most producers are still in the fields trying to get crops seeded. The weather has provided an abundance of moisture and a late start for field work.
CHEMICAL APPLICATION: The key note speaker was Greg Kruger from North Platte, NE, a professor/researcher. The organizers should have extended the day by 1-1.5hrs and gave him a second session. He didn't tell us anything that a licensed applicator shouldn't already know; however, he did emphasize drift issues, their causes, that resulted in lawsuits. I am listing a few of the points he made about spray applications and off target drift potential.
----Spray crops at the right height. A good rule of thumb is one inch above the targeted plant for every inch of spray nozzle spacing. 20" spacing means 20" above the target plant. The information below, where appropriate, is taken 90 feet downwind and at the appropriate tip height, as the base measurement being compared.
----Wind speed should be checked at application height, not 12' off the ground from a self-propelled rig. ( Well, in Nebraska or other flat land areas, maybe that caution has merit; however, in our steep rolling terrain, I don't see that as a useful factor.)
----Drift has two facets: one, is particle, where particles are physically carried off target by wind. The second is vapor. Vapor is controlled by chemical structure and is out of the hands of operators to manage.
----Each herbicide has a preferred application droplet size. You should choose the proper tip for the application speed, and related pressure range to maintain that droplet size.
----You can visually see a 25 micron change in droplet size. Learning the proper spray pattern will help you keep the spray pattern within the preferred droplet size.
----Air inversions are common in early morning and evening with still air. The Pacific Northwest has more air inversions than any other part of the US. Avoid spraying during periods of air inversions. Chemistry can be carried a long way off target with inversions.
----Chemistry can be carried 7 times farther with wind speed that has been doubled.
----Chemistry can be carried 3.5 times farther when booms are raised double their appropriate height.
----Doubling the distance to a susceptible crop will reduce the damage to that crop by 80%.
----Check tip specification and replace any that are more than 10% off rate. Worn tips will dramatically effect droplet size, and coverage.
----AI tips are used to increase droplet size by introducing air into the solution stream. With AI's, you are sacrificing potential coverage, depending on target weed, for a coarser droplet. The presenter likes the AI-XR's for an all purpose tip. They have a droplet size of 400/450. The standard AI's are 500/600 micron.
----To maximize the use of any given tip, keep your pressure at least 10psi above the low end recommendation, and 15/20psi below the high end recommendation.
----Dry herbicide products come with their own measuring cups. They are accurate within 7-15% depending on the chemistry. Always use the cup that comes with the box of chemistry. These calibration marks change with the manufacturing source of the chemical. For real accuracy a calibrated scale should be used. Suitable scales can be purchase for ≈ $80.
----The first agricultural applied herbicide was 2-4D (dry) in 1947.
----The last "mode of action" for plant protection herbicides was discovered in 1986. All the new herbicides are reformulations of old ones. Any new "mode" would take 8-10 years before it could be on the market. Protecting the effectiveness of our current chemistry is paramount, and managing to reduce potential plant resistance should be a priority for your farm.
----Chemical specific crops (roundup ready, liberty link, ect.) limits the interest and financial ability to discover new chemical control for weeds in crop cultivars.
----Any type of cultural practice used over a long period of time will promote resistant bio-types regardless of whether it is through the use of a chemical, cultivation, hand weeding, or is "organic". The first resistant bio-type, for the culture of the time, can be tracked back ten thousand years. A rotation of crops, chemistry, and practices, is the best method of reducing resistant bio-types in agriculture.
Dana Herron & Jay Atchison gave a Wheat Commission report:
----Heaven forbid a kernel of GMO wheat reaching an export terminal. Trade would be disrupted for a year or more.
----Buckwheat: Be careful if you use buckwheat as an alternate crop. Manage so that there will be no buckwheat show in your wheat sample. Japan treats buckwheat like we do peanuts. If you do find buckwheat in your wheat fields, let it be known. There is no trade issues other than with Japan for buckwheat. The contaminated wheat/buckwheat lot can be directed to other buyers.
Drew Lions:
---Rattail fescue control. Zigua (brand name) has shown good control of rattail fescue. The active ingredient is Pyroxisulphome (sp).
---Mixing two chemicals with the same mode of action does not increase the effectiveness over using either chemical. --there is a slight chance that using two chemicals with the same mode of action, but are from different families of chemistry, may improve control of a specific weed, but that's not very likely.
---All chemical applications are better and more consistent when spraying with more solution, except Glyphosate. With Glyphosate more water means more chemical will be tied up with the mineral content in the water. Ammonium nitrate is used to buffer the water, filling the sites that would be filled with the glyphosate molecule. This means that is very important to put nearly all the water along with the ammonium sulfate into the tank before adding in the glyphosate. WSU website has a calculator for the amount of ammonium sulfate to use for a specific hardness of the water being used.
----Spray crops at the right height. A good rule of thumb is one inch above the targeted plant for every inch of spray nozzle spacing. 20" spacing means 20" above the target plant. The information below, where appropriate, is taken 90 feet downwind and at the appropriate tip height, as the base measurement being compared.
----Wind speed should be checked at application height, not 12' off the ground from a self-propelled rig. ( Well, in Nebraska or other flat land areas, maybe that caution has merit; however, in our steep rolling terrain, I don't see that as a useful factor.)
----Drift has two facets: one, is particle, where particles are physically carried off target by wind. The second is vapor. Vapor is controlled by chemical structure and is out of the hands of operators to manage.
----Each herbicide has a preferred application droplet size. You should choose the proper tip for the application speed, and related pressure range to maintain that droplet size.
----You can visually see a 25 micron change in droplet size. Learning the proper spray pattern will help you keep the spray pattern within the preferred droplet size.
----Air inversions are common in early morning and evening with still air. The Pacific Northwest has more air inversions than any other part of the US. Avoid spraying during periods of air inversions. Chemistry can be carried a long way off target with inversions.
----Chemistry can be carried 7 times farther with wind speed that has been doubled.
----Chemistry can be carried 3.5 times farther when booms are raised double their appropriate height.
----Doubling the distance to a susceptible crop will reduce the damage to that crop by 80%.
----Check tip specification and replace any that are more than 10% off rate. Worn tips will dramatically effect droplet size, and coverage.
----AI tips are used to increase droplet size by introducing air into the solution stream. With AI's, you are sacrificing potential coverage, depending on target weed, for a coarser droplet. The presenter likes the AI-XR's for an all purpose tip. They have a droplet size of 400/450. The standard AI's are 500/600 micron.
----To maximize the use of any given tip, keep your pressure at least 10psi above the low end recommendation, and 15/20psi below the high end recommendation.
----Dry herbicide products come with their own measuring cups. They are accurate within 7-15% depending on the chemistry. Always use the cup that comes with the box of chemistry. These calibration marks change with the manufacturing source of the chemical. For real accuracy a calibrated scale should be used. Suitable scales can be purchase for ≈ $80.
----The first agricultural applied herbicide was 2-4D (dry) in 1947.
----The last "mode of action" for plant protection herbicides was discovered in 1986. All the new herbicides are reformulations of old ones. Any new "mode" would take 8-10 years before it could be on the market. Protecting the effectiveness of our current chemistry is paramount, and managing to reduce potential plant resistance should be a priority for your farm.
----Chemical specific crops (roundup ready, liberty link, ect.) limits the interest and financial ability to discover new chemical control for weeds in crop cultivars.
----Any type of cultural practice used over a long period of time will promote resistant bio-types regardless of whether it is through the use of a chemical, cultivation, hand weeding, or is "organic". The first resistant bio-type, for the culture of the time, can be tracked back ten thousand years. A rotation of crops, chemistry, and practices, is the best method of reducing resistant bio-types in agriculture.
Dana Herron & Jay Atchison gave a Wheat Commission report:
----Heaven forbid a kernel of GMO wheat reaching an export terminal. Trade would be disrupted for a year or more.
----Buckwheat: Be careful if you use buckwheat as an alternate crop. Manage so that there will be no buckwheat show in your wheat sample. Japan treats buckwheat like we do peanuts. If you do find buckwheat in your wheat fields, let it be known. There is no trade issues other than with Japan for buckwheat. The contaminated wheat/buckwheat lot can be directed to other buyers.
Drew Lions:
---Rattail fescue control. Zigua (brand name) has shown good control of rattail fescue. The active ingredient is Pyroxisulphome (sp).
---Mixing two chemicals with the same mode of action does not increase the effectiveness over using either chemical. --there is a slight chance that using two chemicals with the same mode of action, but are from different families of chemistry, may improve control of a specific weed, but that's not very likely.
---All chemical applications are better and more consistent when spraying with more solution, except Glyphosate. With Glyphosate more water means more chemical will be tied up with the mineral content in the water. Ammonium nitrate is used to buffer the water, filling the sites that would be filled with the glyphosate molecule. This means that is very important to put nearly all the water along with the ammonium sulfate into the tank before adding in the glyphosate. WSU website has a calculator for the amount of ammonium sulfate to use for a specific hardness of the water being used.
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