In the fifth installment of our Agronomic Design principles blog series, we’re talking about pesticide and herbicide resistance.
What are you doing on your farm to try to reduce pesticide and herbicide resistance?
Greg Kruger, Cropping System Specialist from University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s West Central Research Extension Center, says a good-looking field can have an impact.
“We have a lot of growers out there that are renting land, and the landowners have high expectations for those people renting that land. So making sure they keep that land aesthetically pleasing in terms of weeding management and things like that is going to be critical in the future,” says Kruger.
Another risk associated with crop protection is yield loss. University research shows that if weeds emerge with corn and are left to grow without any control, yield loss can be more than one bushel per acre per day. For soybeans, 1 percent of the crop could be lost each day.
Kruger says a big challenge producers face related to these risks is off-target movement.
“Understanding that with the larger droplets we’re going to get better deposition – we’re going to get less off-target movement. But a lot of times, with these larger droplets, we get less coverage, and particularly with products/herbicides other than Roundup, we’re going to see that we need that small droplet to get that good coverage and get that good control.”
Case IH Patriot sprayers are agronomically designed with AIM Command PRO™ technology.
That’s why Kruger says it’s critical for growers to choose the right nozzles and equipment for their application needs. Mark Burns, Case IH Application Equipment Marketing Manager, says agronomically designed AIM Command PRO™ technology delivers independent nozzle control and turn compensation, ensuring the chemicals are properly distributed.
“Our technology helps producers avoid over-applying, which causes plant damage and yield loss, and they’re not under-applying, causing skips or weed resistance,” says Burns. “This makes our producers good stewards of the land and maximizes their yield potential and ROI.”
Burns says AIM Command PRO technology also helps producers manage droplet size control, especially when they’re looking to maximize their spraying window.
“This technology can give a constant application pressure over a wide range of speeds on the spraying vehicle, in this case, our Patriot® sprayer. That way we’re getting a consistent droplet size regardless of sprayer speed so we get the good coverage and good kill that we’re looking for.”
To see this technology in action, view the “Crop Protectant Application Without Compromise” video.
