Published on 23/11/2023
The magnetic assist patented technology solves the compromise between drift and coverage associated with conventional crop protection spraying.
Typically, 70 per cent of the spray doesn’t hit/stay on the target (weed or crop) when using conventional spray.
This compromise is solved by passing the fluid through magnetic inserts that alter the physical properties of the spray droplets, leading to better coverage and efficacy and reduced waste.
Every farmer utilising boom spray applications can benefit from this, the company says. MagrowTec reduces waste in crop protection products and water, saves labour and boosts productivity, extends spray windows, and meets environmental and legislative requirements.
Critically, the risk of spray drift into neighbouring fields is reduced.
Believing that there had to be technology available that could deliver better spray coverage and reduce the risk of disease is what led New Zealand vegetable grower Hira Bhana & Co and Vantage NZ to approach MagrowTec.
It was clear to Hira Bhana that the technology had the potential to provide solutions in several areas from better agronomic outcomes, operational productivity and drift control.
A MagrowTec system was retrofitted on to one of the grower’s 19 m John Deere linkage sprayers at Pukekohe.
A comprehensive side-by-side comparison using an identical conventional sprayer was then undertaken in one of the business’s potato crops.
Key parameters such as nozzle selection, spray volume, spray pressure, boom height, etc. were kept the same so the MagrowTec effect could be isolated as the only difference between treatments.
The trial demonstrated that the MagrowTec system achieved 26 per cent more coverage throughout the plant canopy using a water rate of 320 litres per ha compared to the conventional machine. When the water rate was reduced to 262 litres per ha, the unit delivered 34 per cent more coverage.
“The MagrowTec was getting a lot better coverage than the conventional was and what really made us think about it was the coverage at the 260 rate was still better than we were getting on a conventional sprayer at 360,” Bharat Bhana says.
Since installing the technology, Bharat Bhana has greatly reduced drift, increased coverage, saved water and increased the productivity of his spraying applications.
The system allows him to spray more hectares in a day, increasing productivity by 30 per cent.
“We are getting less drift which means there’s more spray going down onto the plant, where it should be. We achieved less water rate. At the end of the day, we’ve got a lot more work done; it would normally take us two days to spray 200 hectares of onions. We can do it in a day and a half with MagrowTec. We’ve saved some fuel and spray, we’ve got less drift and also saved some water, so that must be good for the environment,” he says.
These results were mirrored by two further studies which were undertaken in Germany and France in 2022.
In the German crop science study, an application rate of 273 litres per ha resulted in MagrowTec achieving 32 per cent more coverage than the conventional unit.
This study also found that when the water rate was reduced to 209 litres per ha MagrowTec still achieved a 15 per cent increase in coverage over the conventional spray unit.
The French crop science study found that at 200 litres per ha MagrowTec increased coverage by 48 per cent over the conventional, and at a reduced rate of 168 litres per ha coverage was increased by 42 per cent.
The great news from MagrowTec's perspective is that these three assessments were undertaken using the same rigorous ISO certified and audited protocols with three different growers based in very different parts of the world.
But all reflect the systems' performance characteristics with no ambiguity - Magrow-Tec can get much more crop protection product significantly deeper through the crop canopy, leading to improved agronomic outcomes.
The MagrowTec system has no cables, wires, moving parts, or the need for a power supply. Once the system is installed, little or no maintenance is required, and it can be easily transferred to a new sprayer.
The typical ROI can be less than a year.
Since commercialisation, approximately 300+ units have been sold and more than110 field studies have been conducted by MagrowTec’s Crop Science team across the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia and NZ. Magrow-Tec is distributed in NZ through Vantage NZ and Croplands NZ.