Make spray passes more profitable

ATLANTA, Ind. — Considering the time of day, water conditioning and carrier rate are keys to making spray passes more profitable.

Each of these factors are low-cost ways to improve profitability, said Jim Schwartz, director of research, agronomy and Practical Farm Research at Beck’s Hybrids at the 2022 Virtual Field Show.

“Spraying fungicides or foliar nutrition products in the morning improves your profitability,” Schwartz said. “We understand you may not always be able to do that. But if you have the option, if you have the choice, spray in the morning to improve profitability.”

Why does conditioning water matter?

“Hard water contains positively charged cations like calcium, magnesium or iron that tie up negatively charged ions,” Schwartz said. “Several salt-based formulas bind with hard water ions, rendering them less effective.”

How to manage hard water:

1. Test your water. It’s not hard to find out how hard your water is, Schwartz said.

2. Add conditioner first and let it work.

3. Don’t let solutions sit in a tank overnight.

4. Read labels.

“In a perfect world, fill your tank halfway up, add your conditioner,” Schwartz said. “There’s a chemical reaction that goes on. Allow your conditioner to actually condition your water. Don’t dump your conditioner, then the glyphosate. Give it a few minutes to actually react.

“Fill your tank up. Don’t let it sit overnight, because disassociations can occur. Make sure to read labels very specifically.”

Lastly, pay attention to fungicide carrier rate.

“Our data says, for corn there’s no big difference between 15 or 20 gallons of water,” Schwartz said.

“For soybeans, data says 20 gallons. That soybean canopy is so much more dense and harder to penetrate. So, 20 gallons of water is probably more effective.”