Pesticide spray drift costing cotton industry $10m

Cotton farmers say spray drift could be costing the industry $10 million a year.

Cotton Australia chief executive Adam Kay is warning farmers to be very careful when spraying, particularly in high winds or when there is temperature inversion.

Mr Kay says spray drift damaged or destroyed 16,000 hectares, or 11 per cent, of cotton crops last season, but other crops are affected as well.

"Some of the summer legume crops, grapes, cotton, are very sensitive to the phenoxy herbicides, particularly the 2,4-D type products," he said.

"Last season it was around about $10 million worth of lost production.”

"To lose that sort of income, across a whole lot of farmers wearing that, but we just cant afford that.”

"Theyre thinking about the job that theyve got in front of them and maybe not thinking of the neighbours and really these products, these phenoxy herbicides can drift quite easily if theyre sprayed in poor conditions.”

"Also, there are a number of crops that are very sensitive to them, be it cotton or grapes or the like."