Mark Bauman, general manager of Christian County FS based in Taylorville, Illinois, plans to expand the cooperative's fleet of hooded sprayers. The business has one John Deere 4045 sprayer with a Redball hood. The 72-foot SPK645 hood retrofit kit was installed on the sprayer's 120-foot boom in 2019.
Bauman plans to buy two or three more hood retrofit kits from Willmar. It's part of Christian County FS's commitment to being good stewards of technology, protecting crops and increasing on-target pesticide applications for customers, he said.
"The hood works really well, and the applicator doesn't have to worry about physical particle drift," Bauman added. "They may be a little bulky going down the road, but there is no downside to hoods other than the expense."
A 72-foot retrofit kit costs $22,000. The 80-foot version costs $24,400.
Last year Christian County FS sprayed an estimated 75,000 acres of soybeans postemergence with dicamba for about 200 customers. Bauman believes the extra hoods will be needed to keep up with grower demand as more people turn to custom applicators due to dicamba label changes and liability concerns.
"A lot of our growers prefer the dicamba weed control option and minimizing the buffer impact is good," Bauman said.
Ty Witten, director of crop protection strategy for Bayer Crop Science, which markets Xtend seed and XtendiMax herbicide, is pleased the EPA included drift reduction technology as part of the new label. He expects more hoods will be used in the future since they help farmers control herbicide-resistant weeds in and around sensitive areas.
"It's a piece of equipment that can help them control physical drift and be a good neighbor," Witten continued. He said he thinks the data is pretty compelling that hoods work.
PROVEN TECHNOLOGY
A Redball spray hood shielding spray nozzles substantially increase the odds of on-target herbicide and pesticide applications compared to open booms, according to hooded sprayer research on soybeans conducted by the University of Nebraska and Mississippi State University in 2015-16.
The poly structures, with attached flexible wind curtains, brush the crop canopy during spraying. Hoods protect the spray pattern and reduce herbicide drift.
University studies show the relative drift from an open boom spraying fine, medium, very coarse and ultra-coarse droplets at 100 feet ranges from about 4% to 13%. The relative drift from a Redball hooded boom at the same distances spraying the same four droplet sizes ranges from about 2% to 3%.
Labels for over-the-top dicamba herbicides require nozzles that spray ultra-coarse droplets. At 100 feet, studies show relative drift was about 2% for a hooded sprayer compared to about 5% for an open-boom sprayer.
"There has never been a study where there was zero drift using a hood, but they increase the probability that droplets will deposit on the intended target," said Kruger, who helped conduct the studies.
The EPA used the studies when making the latest dicamba label decisions, according to Rhylander. The company also hosted a hooded spraying demonstration for EPA officials near Washington, D.C. in 2018.
"The EPA knows what they get with the hood," Rhylander said. "Hoods do not allow wind to get into the spray pattern, so you have minimal drift."
Redball Gen II broadcast spray hoods, which are used on the 642, 645 and SPK645 retrofit models, are the only drift reduction hoods approved by the EPA that meet requirements for a buffer reduction in dicamba-tolerant soybeans so far. Products from other companies can qualify upon completion of approved testing and confirmation they reduce herbicide drift.
www.xtendimaxapplicationrequirements.com
www.syngenta-us.com/herbicides/tavium
Matthew Wilde can be reached at matt.wilde@dtn.com
Follow him on Twitter @progressivwilde
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November 26, 2020 at 01:25AM
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