sprayer farm


The latest Agriculture Census shows the size of the average farm is increasing in Saskatchewan.

As a result, producers have more acres to cover in the same amount of time. Now there’s more interest in trying to increase coverage and efficiency.

Dr. Tom Wolf is a research scientist in the area of spray technology with Agriculture and Agri-food Canada.

He says it’s important to choose the right time of day to spray, adding that there’s a lot of temptation now with auto-steer to do more night spraying.

"I think the really big issue is that there are typically temperature inversions at night and early morning," explains Wolf. "Those can actually lead to more drift damage than spraying in the wind would have caused. The best time to spray is on a sunny day with a bit of a breeze. The sun and the breeze together disperse the spray so it doesn't cause damage and it dilutes it very rapidly."

Wolf adds it’s important that producers know their sprayer, select the right nozzle for the job and are fully aware of  the products mode of action.

Wolf also would like producers to know that increasing your speed does not increase your coverage or efficiency.

"You could increase the efficiency with which you load up your tank," says Wolf. "There are new technologies out there from some manufacturers that will decrease your loading time to four minutes. Now, if you shave four minutes off every load, that has a tremendous impact on your productivity - it's about the same as travelling 50 percent faster."

He recommends travelling at a reasonable speed in the field of about 12 to 15 miles per hour, or 20 to 25 kilometres per hour.