Spraying You With Questions

While donning my personal protective equipment (PPE) in preparation for spraying weeds this past weekend, I wondered about your spraying season. Are your application requests off the hook, slower than usual, or running smoothly?

Last week’s Pulse of the Market asked about the height of your grower-customers corn, and 70 percent of those that responded said most of their crop was higher than “knee high on the 4th of July.” That indicates that spraying for weeds in corn — and other crops — is well underway in many areas.

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That brings on a slew of questions: Do you have enough herbicide on hand? What weeds are most prevalent in your grower-customers’ fields, and have there been any surprises? Is resistance a concern? Are you applying via ground machines, aerially, or a combination of both?

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Of course, as always, there are areas where a wet spring means late-planted crops. Weeds, as you well know, get a great start in that situation and become even more competitive with crops for essential nutrients. Did you put down residuals in those areas? If not, are the weeds worse than in normal seasons, and how are you dealing with them?

Another factor is the economics of weed and other pest control. Is today’s economy affecting your grower-customers spray decisions?

That’s a lot of questions, and I’m sure there’s a variety of answers out there that I’d love to hear. Just click below to share your story. And even if you choose to be anonymous, please indicate what state and even what area of the state you’re in (Ex: northeast Iowa), it really helps us to get the big picture.

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Avatar for Anonymous Anonymous says:

We had a real hard time trying to get planted this spring. Spraying has really been challanging because it mixed the 2 most popular crops spraying season together Beans and corn. On beans few people use pres and they have had a big problem with big weeds. Some corn also was a challenge to get over it when the time was perfect. We need rain to raise a crop but sometimes it makes for a challenge. People forget soon that you may have just lost 2 or 3 weeks to rain snd could not apply.

Avatar for Anonymous Anonymous says:

With the introduction of Roundup sugarbeets in 2008 we have experienced significant reduction in custom application acres last year and again in 2009. Many patrons are purchasing new and larger sprayers because now they have 3 crops (corn, soybeans, & sugarbeets) that the equipment can be used on. The window of application isn’t even a concern to them anymore, a circumstance which was in our favor. Along with the application aspect, is the fact that Glyphosate is becoming a commodity that is difficult for full service dealerships to generate a reasonable rate of return from, to pay ever increasing overhead costs.

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