Wednesday, April 24, 2013

It sure feels chilly outside today.  The rain has stopped, another .7″ (19mm) since noon yesterday.  But what gets your attention is the temperature.  42º right now.   You can see your breath!

Today, John is assisting Kevin Haase from Wright-Stemle to make an upgrade to the 4730 sprayer boom.   We can’t unfold the boom inside our shop, so John did the next best thing.  He unfolded the boom inside another building.. at least they are out of the rain and cold wind.  The modification package will make boom clean-out easier and more thorough.  It will also improve the flow of product through the boom so that when the sprayer commands the boom to shut off, the flow will stop instantaneous, rather than taper to a stop over a couple seconds.  The result in the field will be a savings on chemicals, and more accurate and precise application.

Kevin and John prepare the devices to add to the 4730 sprayer boom that will make it more accurate and easier to clean out.

Kevin smooths the cuts he made on the 1″ stainless steel boom pipe. This will prepare the pipe to receive the new devices.

Here is one of the 18 devices that will be added to the sprayer today. One device is attached to each end of of the 9 sections of the 1″ stainless pipe.  These devices will become the terminal ends of each pipe. The stainless pipes are what actually carry the chemical solution to the spray nozzles attached at 15″ intervals.

We will take a drive soon to view the situation with the river flood stage.  The crest on the West Fork of White River was supposed to occur upstream at Edwardsport yesterday, and downstream tomorrow at Petersburg.  Our location is about 1/2 way between the two, so the crest should be passing our fields today.  But yesterday’s rain was heavier in the central parts of Indiana… another crest may be on its way.