That’s the message from supplier UPL New Zealand, which says the result is optimal return on investment (ROI) combined with enhanced environmental safety.
While actives usually get the credit for crop protection success, adjuvants are the unsung heroes, ensuring actives get to, on, and into the target plants.
Leading contractor Graham Greer of Greer Groundspraying, Manawatu, says clients occasionally baulk at what they see as additional inputs, but he says adjuvants are “well worth it”.
They make sense operationally, too.
Greer says his company uses Li-1000 from UPL to manage drift and help actives’ penetration. “Where we are, it can get pretty windy. Using Li-1000 can be the difference between being able to do the job and not.”
Li-1000 dramatically reduces off-target drift and significantly increases leaf penetration (through the cuticle) and translocation throughout the plant, improving product performance.
The increasing use of drones for spraying, and sensitivity to, and restrictions on, water use have meant it has come under increasing scrutiny.
Greer says using super-spreader Du- Wett means they can use lower water rates while getting better coverage.
“You can actually even see the difference Du-Wett coverage makes on the leaves. It’s especially good with insecticides in brassicas, which are really hard to wet.”
UPL’s All Clear 2X is also very important to Greer Groundspraying when it comes to cleaning and decontaminating gear between crops and applications.
“It’s a critical part of the process. You get less residuals and fewer blockages,” he says.
All Clear 2X removes even notoriously sticky products, such as carfentrazone, and cleans everything from the tank to the spray lines to the nozzles.
It also has the benefit of increasing gear longevity and performance.
Greer is meticulous and says it’s important to stand by the company’s workmanship, timely delivery, and good client and supplier communication.
That’s a result of decades of experience. His father was a farmer and a hay and silage contractor, and Greer followed in his footsteps, working on farms and driving trucks and diggers, then for a contracting business.
Twenty years later, in 2002, he went out on his own.
His business serves the wider Manawatū-Whanganui area, with clients mostly involved in mixed cropping, beef, dairy and sheep.
The company works across a broad range of crops and pastures. “It’s a real mixed bag.”
Working year-round, they have four full-time staff and five at peak time, which is September through February.
Greer says the company has both trucks and self-propelling machines, so the team can work with a larger variety of crops and taller crops as well.
The next generation of Greer contractors, his sons Issac and Hamish Greer, who work with him, are gaining their CAA drone certification.
For more information talk to your local technical specialist or phone David Lingan, UPL NZ adjuvant product manager, 021 804 45.