Friday, April 26, 2013
John and I toured prospective soybean fields this morning to see if it would be possible to apply the pre-plant, tank-mix herbicide of Roundup WeatherMax, Authority, and Sharpen. This application is made before planting to stop emerged weeds. Our biggest adversary weed-wise these days is “marestail“. It simply must be stopped when it is very small. The tank-mix that John will apply is able to make the soybean fields start weed-free.
We discovered a few places that would allow a sprayer to travel over the soil, and we got geared up to do so. I took the water truck, a semi with 6000 gallons of water in 4 tanks, and got it filled at CPS. They loaded the packages of the Authority and Sharpen. The Roundup is contained in the water truck in a 240-gallon special bulk container, that is re-filled when needed.
John went to the Holscher farm south of Wheatland and began to spray. He got along pretty well, and was able to complete that location. He moved to the Steimel and Harvey/Wanda farms along Hwy 241 south of Wheatland, and the going was a little wetter there, but still do-able. After completing those locations, he will move to the Cox and Pond farms closer to home. It is the goal to finish those tonight. Rain is predicted for tomorrow, lending some urgency to getting the soybean pre-plant herbicide application started. The fields we are in today are not dry enough for planting, but we are ready now to plant soybeans as soon as soil conditions permit!
Even though the sky was cloudy, the wind was <8mph, making for good spray conditions.
Here, John is attaching the hose to transfer water and chemicals from the tender truck to the sprayer. The chemicals are mixed by an inductor into the water stream as the sprayer fills.
This machine treats a 100-foot swath with every pass. When running 8-12 mph or more, the acres disappear pretty fast. The on-board computer and GPS-based control system guarantees a precise application. No skip or overlaps. The rate is consistent no matter what speed the machine travels.
To watch a video of this machine running today, just go to our YouTube page and click on Spraying soybeans pre-plant.
Let’s hope the meteorologists are getting it wrong for tonight and tomorrow!
