10 minute read
Sprayers
Simple spraying guidelines for better disease control
• Checklist improves application techniques • Optimum timing remains primary objective • Reduced water volume boosts work rates
Asimple application checklist ahead of key disease control programmes can deliver sizeable improvements in product performance and yield.
As well as providing a better return on investment, keeping on top of disease will minimise the need for curative activity. It reduces selection for pathogen resistance and helps to maintain the effi cacy of today’s limited fungicide armoury.
“Agrovista has carried out many trials over several years at the important T1 and T2 timings where yellow rust was the main pathogen,” says the company’s technical manager Mark Hemmant.
“These trials clearly demonstrate the importance of correct application techniques. By following a few simple guidelines, growers can signifi cantly improve control for very little outlay and effort.”
Good timing remains key and should be the primary aim, as any slippage can have a big impact on yield. A week late at T2 (GS37-39) can cause yield potential to fall away by as much as 0.5-1t/ ha, and by much more as the delay increases, says Mr Hemmant.
Boom height
Boom height has a major effect on application accuracy.
“Apart from bad timing, this is probably the biggest cause of poor fungicide performance. The optimum boom height is 0.5m above the crop. Doubling it typically increases drift by a factor of 10 with fl at fan nozzles.”
Water volume
Using a water volume of 100 litres/ ha delivered better disease control in wheat than 200 litres/ha, according to results from 13 Agrovista trials.
On average, the lower volume delivered 0.2t/ha more yield, although even under high disease pressure we saw yields rise by up to 0.53t/ha. The fi ner spray improved coverage and each droplet contains more active ingredient.
“Halving the water volume also reduces travelling and fi lling downtime, potentially increasing work rates by a third,” says Mr Hemmant. “This means more crop can be treated at the optimum timing.”
On rare occasions under very high Septoria pressure, the higher volume worked better than the lower one. This is worth bearing in mind where disease is establishing on the upper leaves which are critical in delivering yield.
Nozzle type
Standard 110-degree fl at fan nozzles (F110-03) are the best option when applying fungicides to wheat, delivering an effective droplet spectrum that ensures good coverage and penetration at 100-200 litres/ha.
“Flat fans were consistently more effective when used with triazole/SDHI treatments in normal spraying conditions, producing an average yield increase of 0.29t/ha over air induction (BBJ-03) nozzles across 16 trials over fi ve years. We also found that BBJs produced 0.23t/ha more yield than GuardianAir 03s.”
Nozzle angling
Alternating forward-facing (30-degree) and vertical nozzles along the boom improves spray performance, aiding coverage and penetration.
The technique also reduces drift, allowing air to pass through the spray
Doubling boom height can increase drift by a factor of 10, says Mark Hemmant
Below: Agrovista
has tested different application techniques over many years
curtain, reducing the tendency to create eddies behind it.
Alternating the angle of fl at fans as above produced a 0.46t/ha uplift in four wheat trials compared with a conventional downward set-up; the difference with air inclusion nozzles was 0.23t/ha over 16 trials.
“This work clearly shows the benefi t of angling nozzles, but poses a dilemma for nozzle choice. While it shows fl at fans give better performance, air inclusion nozzles are less prone to drift, which may allow growers to time fungicides better in marginal conditions.
“The use of air inclusion nozzles may also be a label requirement for some products when applied close to water.”
Applications aids
Agrovista has investigated the use of application aids to provide practical solutions for these dilemmas. Adding Velocity to the tank mix delivers better product performance with any nozzle, improving droplet structure to aid penetration and spread on the leaf.
“Velocity is particularly benefi cial when using air inclusion nozzles, taking performance to levels near those achieved by fl at fans. This enables growers to get the job done without having to sacrifi ce effi cacy and yield from using a ‘poorer’ air inclusion nozzle.
Over 17 trials, adding Velocity produced an average yield uplift of 0.45t/ ha compared with no application aid when using air inclusion nozzles.
Accurtae information means a better result, says Dan Wormell
Precision decision aims to optimise arable margins
• Variable inputs save time and money • Goal to secure return on investment • Technology can future-proof business
Achieving even greater precision is a key goal for Daniel Wormell, who farms 600ha of arable land at Langenhoe, Essex.
The family-run business – PR Wormell Farms crops some 550ha near the Colne estuary, with the rest under environmental schemes. Milling wheat is the primary crop in a rotation with winter beans, linseed and grain maize.
Mr Wormell already applies seed and fertiliser variably. But he wants to go further – ultimately applying all inputs in the same way. The reason for that is because he sees significant change ahead.
“The direction we are heading looks clear. In the future it is likely all farms will be cropping a smaller area than they do now. Also, we will be more accountable – any input will need to be targeted and justifiable.” remains to be seen. But whatever the area, Mr Wormell knows it must still deliver a profit. His focus is on maximising the potential of every cropped area – but doing so in more austere regulatory environment.
Nowhere will this be more keenly felt as in East Anglia. The area one of the UK’s most productive for crop production – and it is incredibly habitat diverse. This means there can be competing interests when it comes to land management.
With wetlands, shore, woodland and heaths, Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk have close to 400 sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs) alone. Before Covid, tourism generated £10bn to the East Anglia economy – a good part of that through nature tourism.
Genetics is clearly part of the solution. So is a more prescriptive agronomic approach but that can only be done with accurate field data. That was the driver for Mr Wormell trialling Bayer’s digital platform Climate FieldView.
Fewer inputs
“Genetics is already playing a part,” he explains. “Group 2 varieties like Extase with good inherent disease profiles aren’t currently an option for us but it offers others the opportunity to reduce fungicide use.”
There are hardware limitations – In future, any input will need to be targeted and justifiable
but technology will play a big part in reducing fungicides too. “The future isn’t refining fungicide strategy by variety but by field – adjusting rates based on plant biomass and disease pressure.”
“At the moment variable application is somewhat limited by machine boom width removing the ability to vary rates across it. This reduces our capacity to fully tailor crop needs but the ability to apply variable rates to very defined areas of a field is not far away.”
Mr Wormell was an early adopter of technology and quickly supplied iPads to the PR Wormell farm team so all operations could be logged in Gatekeeper efficiently. This saved time – but more importantly eliminated data entry errors.
But FieldView goes a step further, especially with the need to optimise every acre of cropped land. A key attraction is the ease with which yield results can be precisely overlayed with a raft of agronomic data, particularly variable rate applications.
Precision farming
“We can look at any part of the field with FieldView, even down to really small field areas. It is going to make the process of evaluating detailed precision farming strategies simpler and more comprehensive.
“Future-proofing our business can continued on p26
continued from p24 only come about by performance gains across all parts of the farm. Genetics is one route to improving yields throughout a fi eld but so is data to fi ne tune agronomic strategies across a fi eld accordingly,” he notes.
With a smaller cropping area, some fi eld areas might come out of production completely. FieldView will allow Mr Wormell to build up a picture of fi eld performance over several seasons and identify the most appropriate parts to be taken out of cropping.
He also feels it might help with more basic decisions. He likes the ability to specify variety and is looking forward to see how winter bean varieties Tundra and Wizard perform.
“It was more accident than design but we’ve ended up with a fi eld containing both varieties. Of course, we’ll be able to compare the two when we see the data coming in from the combine.”
Crop management
“It will be interesting to see how both varieties perform. Another benefi t with FieldView is if I have my tablet with me, I know which variety I’m looking at when crop walking, and can see histor-
FieldViewscreenshot
ic drilling or application information.”
It also provides an alternative to tractor telematics, with the added benefi t of seeing application rates in the fi eld. And that data is realtime and accessible anytime, anywhere, useful with the more fl uid and mobile lifestyle of today.
“Like others, Covid means my two boys have been home schooling but I can get realtime data when away from the business.”
Mr Wormell admits that he hasn’t Data is realtime and accessible anytime
used all the functionality within of FieldView but it is early days. Hopefully this season he will get to use some of the suite of Field Health tools and he recognises that variations in biomass could be an early indication of a problem.
“My focus to-date has been around yield variation across the fi eld, particularly those fi eld areas that could be costing us money. But as I get more experience so my use of the platform will increase.”
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