Smart Herbicide Application Starts With Broadcast Nozzles

Apr 20, 2021

What’s on your to-do list for managing weeds this spring? Weed identification: check. Herbicide selection: check. If you apply your own pesticides, does your list include selection of broadcast nozzles?

Although broadcast nozzles may be one of the least expensive aspects of pesticide application, the selection of proper broadcast nozzles is nevertheless crucial to help ensure your herbicide applications are effective. The type of product delivery depends on which broadcast nozzle is used. Applicators should choose their nozzle sections based on their rate controllers, or how they plan to apply the herbicide, which can include pressure-based rate controllers and pulse width modulation controllers.

After an applicator has chosen their rate controller, they can determine their nozzle types and droplet size. Droplet size, weather and boom height are all factors that, if not used correctly or taken into consideration, can cause drift and off-target movement, which increases the risk of damage to sensitive neighboring crops.

Travis Legleiter, assistant extension professor of weed science at the University of Kentucky, says in order for applicators to maximize the droplet for herbicide delivery, a balance between mitigating drift while also achieving the desired deposition and coverage is needed to make the herbicide work. Although those three might not always go hand in hand, applicators can also use other factors such as their spray volume, weed density, boom height and environmental conditions to be successful.

Click here to see more...

Video: Why Invest in Canada’s Seed Future? | On The Brink: Episode 3

Darcy Unger just invested millions to build a brand-new seed plant on his farm in Stonewall, Manitoba so when it’s time for his sons to take over, they have the tools they need to succeed.

Right now, 95% of the genetics they’ll be growing come from Canadian plant breeders.

That number matters.

When fusarium hit Western Canada in the late 90s, it was Canadian breeders who responded, because they understood Canadian conditions. That ability to react quickly to what’s happening on Canadian farms is exactly what’s at risk when breeding programs lose funding.

For farmers like Darcy, who have made generational investments based on the assumption that better genetics will keep coming, the stakes are direct and personal.

We’re on the brink of decisions that will shape our agricultural future for not only our generation, but also the ones to come.

What direction will we choose?

On The Brink is a year-long video series traveling across Canada to meet the researchers, breeders, farmers, seed companies, and policymakers shaping the future of Canadian plant breeding. Each week, a new story. Each story, a piece of the bigger picture.

Episode 3 is above. Follow Seed World Canada to catch every episode, and tell us: Do you think the next generation will have the tools they need to success when they takeover? How is the future going to look?