2017 Wheat College

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.

2016 - Late Spring Review of our Cover Crop

 

 This spring we started taking out CRP with 2qt of Rt3 with extra surfactant, using 12gpa solution, TeeJet blue TT with 40psi.  Results were excellent.  Two weeks later we seeded a cover crop mix that included:  Yellow Blossom Sweet Clover, Common Vetch, Daikon Radish, Graza Radish, Attack Mustard, Ida Gold Mustard, Winter Canola, Spring Canola.  The mix at 10#/ac contained about 1.7million seeds per acre.  Because the source of the Ethiopian Cabbage (Corinne) was not certified disease free, it was not included. The intention is to leave this cover to grow through March, maybe April 2017, and then chemically destroy it, leaving as much of a residue mat as possible.  The cultivars that are expected to survive the winter is the clover, vetch, and Graza radish.  Both of the legumes should grow well early in the spring 2017 and provide N by takeout time. The Graza will exist and grow leaf material prior to takeout.   If we could have planted the Corinne, it would likely survive and provide us with another vigorous bio-bore plant.  The radishes, canola's and mustards are bio-bore plants as well.  We have found that our CRP ground is in need of deep boring cultivars.  The mustards, canola and Daikon Radish will seed out in 2016 and likely die during the winter.  Come spring we will see high populations of these cultivars emerge early.  None of these cultivars will be a problem to remove.  Our intention is to seed these acres to winter wheat the fall of 2017.
      Today, I noticed some areas are very good and others with a sparse population.   On reflection, we should have started the process about a month earlier.  The south exposures indicates they were short on moisture showing a spotty stand with few cultivars.  One 0.40 rain will get them started.  Field aspects that point anywhere northerly looks good with high populations, and a good diversity of cultivars.
   

No-Till Farmer Magazine

      This past year, 2015, I had the opportunity to contribute my thoughts to two subjects that I have some passion for.  The first, in the August edition, 2015, (volume 44, No. 8) I responded to the question of how do you handle crop residue.  These thoughts and a pic show up on page 90 in the section titled "No-Tillers Tackle Residue Issue From Every Angle", along with the thoughts of twenty other people.
      The second opportunity came as a feature item in the November edition, 2015, (volume 44, No.11), titled "Overcoming No-Till Stumbling Blocks", starting on page 22.  This article was written from a telephone interview with Martha Mintz along with some material I submitted to her.  Martha is listed as a Contributing Editor and regularly writes articles under the logo " What I've Learned From No-Tilling...".  It came out pretty good if I do say so myself.  < Eriksen interview  >
      While looking up what Martha Mintz contributed over the years to No-Till Farmer, I came across an article where she interviewed Guy Swanson for a piece titled "Bringing No-Till To The Palouse".  Mort Swanson, Guy's father, is the name that everyone in the Palouse remembers as THE inventor-early practitioner of No-Till.  This article was posted in the November edition, 201, < Bringing no-till to the Palouse >.  It's a great read for someone interested in the background of no-till in the Palouse.  Mort is no longer with us but Guy is hail & hearty and manufacturing/selling EXACTRIX systems for applying liquid anhydrous ammonia fertilizer.
       No-Till Farmer has been around since 1972.  I was a subscriber for a while in it's early days, but found that it was a midwest and east magazine that I couldn't relate too.  Today, No-Till Farmer is still primarily an east of the Rocky Mountains publication but I am finding that even though we are in two different climatic zones, Continental vs our Mediterranean classification,  the same problems exist.  Practices and Research done east of the "divide" has concepts that apply here,--our task is to adapt that knowledge base to our climate limitations and strengths.  With our Stripper Head, self propelled sprayer, and CrossSlot drill, we have all the practices available for controlling soil erosion; however, we still have water loss.  Soil health has improved, and it will continue to improve to some extent; however, that improvement will be limited until we get more plant diversity, and remove fallow.  Cover Crops and Interseeding crops potentially hold the answer to these questions.  The trick is, how to apply.
       The Koppen Climate classification model designating the Pacific Northwest as mostly Mediterranean does not fit very well.  We don't fit the Continental or the Coastal either.  Our climate diversity is likely to be a topic of discussion for a long time as to what classification we really fit.

IMPORTANCE OF FALL CHEMICAL TREATMENT

         I recently spent a couple of days participating in tours designed for growers sponsored by private and public entities.  Of all the things that I saw and heard, the following was the most striking.  I'll be interested in the harvest data on this plot of spring wheat.  We all have experienced the anxiety of putting out chemical on ground that looks bare of anything growing.
         This pic demonstrates the importance of a fall chemical application when your intention is to plant a spring crop.  In this case the crop is a spring cereal.  It is a little difficult to visualize, but look at the pant line on the researcher.  The right side is about knee high.  The left side is about mid thigh.  There were no specifics given to compare the the two sides; however, the right side of the plot looked stunted, and thinner compared to the left side.   If the right side had been a field, the grower may not notice there being a problem.  Standing alone, the right side doesn't look that bad, maybe a little thin. The only difference in the treatment of this plot was that the right side was missed when the fall application of glyphosate was applied.  The researcher stated that there was very little material growing on the plot last fall.  Each side of the plot had it's spring application of glyphosate three weeks prior to seeding.  The entire plot was seeded at the same time, and all subsequent operations were done consistent across the entire plot.  The first indication that something was different was the delay in crop emergence on the right side.  Rhizoctonia was discovered to be the culprit.  The green bridge effect raises it's ugly head even when there doesn't appear to be any green.

So the lesson is:  DON'T MISS THE FALL APPLICATION OF GLYPHOSATE --- even though it appears there is nothing for glyphosate to act on.

Self propelled Sprayers

[Update: 12/3/14]-- The new location for the auto boom height sensors is a success.  There are limitations that were mentioned below.  We have been able to spray at 9-11mph without problem.  You just have to be ready to react when the rare situation presents itself.  The 275hp engine is adequate  with 1500gal load in our hills at 5-7mph; however, above that speed you can have issues.  The system safety sensors kick the transmission into neutral when over loaded.  Not nifty when climbing a 40% slope -- so, be aware of your terrain and how you approach it.  We have noticed that the transmission is finicky.  It goes to neutral if it senses a jerk or overload, and maybe other things.  We have less issues as we become familiar with the machine.  I run in cruise control all the time, including roading.  The system isn't tolerant of throttle hopping.  The cab is quiet at 1800rpm; however, in the hills, we need to keep the engine at 2000-2200rpm for the power --the fan for cooling the engine and hydraulics is a roar at high engine rpm.
[5/24/14 update:]-- Life on the sprayer has become more boring with less to do -- but we are doing a better job with less damage to crop and machine.  In the past, we placed the autoboom sensors at the joint where the outer wing boom flips over.  The center section has been lower than the wings giving a shallow [V] look from the front or back of the machine.  We have been using the manual outer wing switches to lift the outer boom to avoid ground strikes when transitioning from one slope to another.  Even in the "down" position the end boom of either wing seems seldom at the right height.    We got a lot of boom flare up as we traverse the ground. As the boom height is adjusted through the sensor it is magnified at the end of the boom (20+ feet farther out).  This has caused damage to neighboring crops, and in general doesn't look good spraying product and having the ends frequently 8-12 feet off the ground instead of 24-30".  The tall 40" stubble has worsened the situation since the sensors reflect from that material.  We have noticed some flop as the sensors pass from tall stubble into a wheel track.   We have changed this arrangement and I think we will like it.   
       The new autoboom arrangement:  a)--The center section has been lifted and blocked at 38" instead of  the original 28".  The blocks are for stability of the boom.   b)--the sensors have been moved out near the end of the wings.  Only two nozzles are beyond the sensors.  Those sensors are now normally set at 24-28" height instead of the earlier 32-35"height.  This has eliminated the need for manually controlling the outer boom to prevent ground strikes.  We have greatly reduced the wing flareups.  We can better judge the end of the boom  along a fence where the guidance system is inoperative.  The look from front or rear is a shallow inverted [V].  It looks better from the point of misting.  There is less need for watching and correcting height to prevent boom strikes.  We do go to the screen more frequently and adjust the sensor height.  I have run it as low as 16".  Two down sides to this arrangement:  1-- the hydraulics won't keep up with significant terrain change above 6mph., and 2-- if you need to manually control a wing, the auto boom has to be disabled on that side.   This normally only comes into play when you run the end of the boom (where the sensor is located) out into space over a near vertical bank.   
        We have a full year of experience now with this unit.  It is a great machine.  We like the capacity(100ac @ 15gpa).  We like the mobility (at 12' width we can move on the road without much concern, and we can go some distance for reload).  It's stable beyond any slope we will ever farm.  Our spray pack is an 02 model at 90'.  It has the rectangular box center frame instead of the newer parallel link center frame.  I think the parallel links are not as stable or as strong, and will likely be more prone to damage than the box frame in our hills.  I like the 90' boom.  We get good production, and now, with the new autoboom setup.  I think it will move around the field better with less trouble, and do a better job than the 120' booms that are making an appearance.  

[7/22/13 update:]-- We have divided the 90' boom into 9 sections with 4, 6, or 7 nozzles each.  This is better.  Even at 7 nozzles, the boom length is only 11.6 feet, so we can pick up small strips going down the center line on the GPS screen -- a lot easier than trying to guess on the screen where the end of your boom is situated.
     While spraying out a CRP field we noticed that going one direction we left a 4 foot skip in places on our hill sides.  Going the other direction we left no skip.  It turns out that we need to zero out our tilt correction that is part of the smart-steer system.  Without Smart-steer we watched the screen and tried to keep a 5-7' overlap with a setting of 100% boom width.  We had few skips and they showed accurately on the coverage map following an application.  With smart-steer I notice that it tries to keep the overlap 0.2-0.6 feet.  At this point in time the coverage map is not accurate.  When you go back to spray out the visible skips they don't show up on the application map.   It's obvious we need to adjust some settings so skips show accurately.
      Our overlap settings currently are as follows:  We have shortened up our 90' boom 20" (one nozzle), and left no overlap settings for the individual booms.  This evening I started the system up and hopefully corrected the tilt.  To do that I tapped the steering symbol on the Viper and tapped through the screens to the 3D screen and followed the directions for adjusting the tilt.

[5/21/13 update]-- We have 1000 acres sprayed with the GVM.  This is an impressive machine.  The smart-steer is responsive and holds the line very well.  The auto-boom holds the spray boom stable at the desired height.  We have 8 years experience with accu-boom (auto sectional on/off) and love it.   Although the GVM  is better than I ever imagined,  it currently has more overrun than our 100' pull sprayer with it's 7 sections controled by accu-boom.  We need to divide our current five section 90' boom into 7, at least, or maybe 9 sections.  The greatest return for the precision buck is accu-boom.  Hopefully the smart-steer will help a little to reduce overrun.  

[5/13/13 update]-- We have changed the wing cylinder lift point to give significant additional lift.  A test run through one of our sharpest "V" shaped draws indicates that we should not have any ground strikes with the sensor controlled inner portion of the wing.  The outer wing portion will need tending and that is OK.  There is no reason to grip the joy stick; so, the operators fingers can rest comfortably over the outer wing control switches on the console for quick reaction to slope change.  Monitoring, lifting, and lowering the outer wings will become second nature with a little experience.
      We have changed the fence-row tip to a TOC80 high volume tip giving an additional 30' of reach.  This tip operated at 40psi, traveling 5mph, closely matches the turbo twinjet 04's (red) on the booms at 24-25gpa.  This tip, along with the suspended boom, allows us to extend out over non-crop areas farther than in the past.  If we find that we actually need a fence row tip, we will modify the bracket too accommodate both the TOC80 and a smaller turbo twinjet 04 tip, or an 02.5 tip.

   [5/5/13]-- Past observations and concerns: --- There are several self propelled sprayer manufacturers to choose from, and more coming into the market.  --It may be a challenge to get a good job from self propelled sprayers.  A consistent height appears difficult to achieve.  Every spray job I have observed showed frequent ground strikes, and booms 6-10 feet off the ground.  --- The sprayers don't maintain a consistent speed.  They appear to be racing over the fields with booms a flopping.  ---By mounting skinny tires they do offer the potential to spray a fungicide late in the growing year as an alternative to an airplane. --- We have had five custom applications in the past 3yrs and I would classify all as failures:  three from not doing the job timely, one from a contaminated tank, and the last was from poor plant coverage.

      The decision was made to own one of these units.  The stripper header has made our pull sprayer obsolete, and the custom operators don't appear to be an option for us.  The question is -- can we find a unit we can afford.  Since we are not dealing with row crops and a mechanical drive is likely to work better in our hills than a hydraulically driven unit, a GVM Prowler is our preference.
        The Lord was with us on this project.  Although we did research GVM, self-propelled units are complex machines and there were questions we never thought of asking.  In the end, we have a late model, low hour machine with all the electronic gadgetry, for less than 25% new cost -- still a lot of money!   It all came together May 1st with our first field application.

Unit specifications:   2007 GVM chassie with a 6.7 Cummings engine developing 275hp, 10 speed Funk power shift transmission, front axle steer, four wheel drive with locking differentials.  The chassie came equipped as a combo-unit, meaning the wiring harness and hydraulic system was designed for either the spray kit or the spreader kit.  The chassie came with a 9.5 ton Fusion stainless steel two product spreader kit.  We purchased the spray kit separately. 

     The spray kit is a 2002, with a self cleaning 1500 gallon stainless steel tank, 90 foot booms equipped with nozzle bodies that have five ports, on 20" centers.  The solution pump is a hydraulically driven centrifugal that delivers up to 190gpm, and can be used to fill the tank without the aid of a transfer pump.  It also is equipped with a stainless steel inductor that allows you to introduce chemical into the system without any additional support equipment.

     The electronics include:  SmartTrax (auto-steer) by Raven, Auto-Boom (sonic height control for the 90' suspended boom) by Raven, Acu-Boom (GPS controlled on/off for a 5 section boom) by Raven, a single product node (product application rate control) by Raven, and cruise control (for maintaining a constant speed).   All control is done through a Raven Viper Pro touch screen monitor with mapping capability.

        Pic's above are from the first hour of product application.  AMAZING!!  We loaded up 1250 gals of product and started out.  All of the controls functioned as advertised.  At 7.5mph, the ride was comfortable, plenty of power for the hills, the booms stayed at the programed height and were steady (not flopping around).  The 12' width of the unit felt solid and stable on our slopes.  The back rack (which carries the booms) has no stabilizing cylinders, or shock absorbers that some of the newer units feature to control the boom flop when traversing uneven terrain at application speed.  The AutoBoom system mitigates much of the need for those features.  Field speed probably plays a major role as well.  Most of the units I have observed have been operating in the 12-15mph range when applying herbicides -- not the 7-8mph that we are currently doing.

        Most of my concerns about these self propelled, suspended boom spray units disappeared after the first day of spraying.  The only question left is the coverage?  That judgement will be left to the end of the season when we re-evaluate the system.  My early thought after watching the application on the first 500ac, is that it will be better than our pull sprayer --> more solution per acre, fewer tracks, less dust, more consistent speed.   We will do nearly all of our spraying at 12.5 gpm.  We have equipped the unit with 04 turbo-TeeJet (red) with duel spray pattern.  This looks like it will be the principal nozzle.  It's designed to operate in the range of 20-90 psi.  This gives us application rates ranging from 12.5-24.0 gpa.  We have also equipped the unit with 2.5 turbo-TeeJet (purple) duel pattern nozzles for our chem-fallow.  With these tips applying 12.5gpa, we will be traveling in the 4-6mph range for better dust control.   The unit came with two sets of air induction tips, one very fine droplet, and one very course droplet.  It's questionable whether we will use them.

     Adaptations to consider:  1--reposition the wing lift cylinder for more wing lift.  We do need to lift the wings to a greater angle for the transition between the flats and slopes in many areas of our fields.  2--possibly go from 5 to 9 boom sections for less product over-run???  3--put another AutoBoom node in to control height of the outer wing??--> we don't know it that is even possible at this time regardless of cost.  That would make this unit nearly independent from operator input as the unit follows along a line.

       This pic shows how we received the chassie with the Fusion stainless steel dry spreader box and the tinted glass from Tennessee last January.  Fortunately the glass tint was a film that came off easily.  We have not taken the time yet to check out the spreader.  It does have a two product node for GPS control through the Raven Viper Pro monitor.  It looks to be in excellent shape.  Once we find out it's condition, we will  probably offer it for sale since we currently don't have a use for it.