Two farmers who make it work in their operations say herbicide costs can be cut with a double boom spraying system.
Saskatchewan grain farmers continue to be in an economic squeeze. Market analysts are holding a flashlight at the end of the tunnel now and the hope is that it will soon be a spotlight and then the sunlight. But, producers have to get to the end of the tunnel, which is a least another growing season away. Part of everyone's solution is cutting corners. One of the heavy draws on operating funds is weed control. For all non-organic producers, weed control involves herbicides. Numerous means of reducing the herbicide bill have been tried. Two northeast Sask. farmers have developed spot spraying add-on systems for their crop sprayers that save dollars.
Allan Hurd is a grain producer farming just a few miles south of Melfort. He crops 4300 acres growing peas, wheat, barley, canola, and flax. He has been direct seeding for 20 years. He currently seeds with a Bourgault 5710. He puts down NH3 with mid row coulter banders and runs 2² spoon openers on the seed shanks. Over the years he says his direct seeding system reduces wild oat pressure and spot spraying works for him because he does not have "wall to wall" wild oats.
Al says he first started reaping the benefits of spot spraying by re-spraying spots with his single boom sprayer. Of course he got tired of sitting on the sprayer as has everyone else who has tried spot spraying this way. When Al started working on a home built high clearance sprayer, the project just naturally lead to making a system that would spot spray on the go.
Al's system started off as an old army truck. He got 26 inches of clearance at the lowest point with rims made to take 9.5 X 42 tires. When pre-harvesting, he fastens puck board underneath and in cereals, he says he is knocking very little grain out of the heads. He took a 540-gal tank off his pull type Bourgault sprayer. The boom is a 70-foot Wilmar Air ride boom. He used a Gleaner combine cab for an operator station. The transmission is a 540 Allison and he powers it with a 350 Chev.
A direct injection system is what makes spot spraying possible. When spraying, the main tank contains the one herbicide already in suspension. In Al's case, this is normally the less expensive broadleaf herbicide. It feeds to the first of two sets of booms and nozzles. A second set of booms will spray both the broadleaf herbicide and an in-line injected and agitated second emulsifiable herbicide. This is usually the more expensive wild oat herbicide. The second boom is already charged with this injected mixture of herbicides. A very rapid electric 3-way ball valve switches between the booms without a miss even at 13.5 mph. It is located just before the point of injection into the boom. Agitation takes place in an in-line swirl chamber.
There certainly was some cost to setting up a system like this but it doesn't compare to what you would have to spend on a commercial system. Al says the electronics to make his first boom work cost about $5000. He is using a Raven automatic rate controller with 3-boom section shut off. The cost of the injection system which is an add-on to the Raven rate controller was another $5000.
This is certainly a significant capital investment but there are some big savings to be made, too. Al says that on many of his fields last year, he only sprayed 20 acres out of the quarter section for wild oats. In fact, he says that in the last growing season, the greatest portion of any of his quarter sections he had to treat with wild oat herbicide was 40 acres. These kinds of savings amount to some serious dollars saved to help offset the cost of rigging. At $15/ac saved, it only takes a little over 330 acres to pay for the injection system.
Al has had 2 years of experience spot spraying with this sprayer now. He says the first season he was completely satisfied with the results. Last year he thought he was seeing some misses on the edges of wild oat patches during his 2-3 day after spraying check. However, Al says that by the time he was back in the field at pre-harvesting, he was totally satisfied with the control.
Al points to several techniques that make this spot spraying system work on his farm. One of these is that he sprays at 13.5 mph not 18 mph like the "real" high clearance sprayers. Because he seeds on a 10-inch row spacing with narrow knives, he is assured that low disturbance seeding will not stimulate wild oat growth. It also means that at in-crop spraying time, the wide row spacing makes wild oat patches fairly visible and the booms can be switched rapidly enough for satisfactory control.
One of Al's concerns is that only spraying patches will leave enough seed to start a real mess that will get out of hand in following crops. Al has been spot spraying for 5 years and has not yet seen this fear realized so it seems we can safely conclude that in his low disturbance seeding system, spot spraying is a viable alternative.
One of the difficulties of transferring this concept to your farm is that it is not likely you are going to build your own high clearance sprayer. In fact, Al would not recommend starting a high clearance project like his to anyone. He is already concerned about where he might find truck parts for what is left of the old army truck. However, the injection system part of his project would fit for a number of different types of sprayers. Al sees real value in trying to incorporate that into the spraying system on your farm.
An alternative option that can make this on-the-go spot spraying work is a 2-tank sprayer. In fact, Flexicoil has a large pull-type commercial unit available that lists at about $46,700. With cash in hand, you could probably find one for less than $40,000.
If this is still beyond the range of your capital budget for the coming growing season, there is the option of putting a second tank on your current pull-type sprayer. Philip Mansiere of Meskanaw added a separate tank and booms on his Centurion III 100 foot Bourgault sprayer. He put a lot of time into this conversion but his actual cash out-of-pocket was less than a $1000. He did have an old sprayer he took a lot of parts from and various sales where he picked up used parts and pieces to make this system work.
The extra tank holds 200 gallons and he uses a hydraulically driven centrifugal pump in the second spray circuit. The pump on the main system is pto driven. The main tank is 830 imperial gallons. The main set of booms has nozzle bodies with 2 nozzles per body. The second boom is a 1² boom with old style nozzle bodies and 5 gal/ac tips. Philip sprays at 9 mph. so he can still cover a lot of ground in a hurry.
The advantages he sites with a 2-tank system are, of course, spot spraying for wild oats. He particularly mentions the use of extra Poast on heavy patches of wild oats when he is spraying Pursuit on peas. He also used extra Liberty in the small tank to hit heavier patches of weed infestations in Liberty Link Canola. They have a lot of horsetail, which has become a problem with reduced tillage. During Round-up burn-off, Philip will hit the patches of horsetail with some MCPA from the second tank.
Philip has had one year's experience with his 2 boom sprayer and he also sites significant herbicide savings saying he cut dollars spent on wild oat chemical by at least 50% last year. He is also especially pleased with much better control with Liberty.
As is always the case when making a change to any part of your grain farm, you must consider your production system as a whole. These producers make a 2 boom spraying unit sound pretty easy to come up with. Probably the bigger challenge is, do you have a seeding system that will make it work? For those who do, there are some significant savings to be captured!