Oro Agri launched new anti-drift adjuvant to reduce spray losses

The title of the 1939 film classic, “Gone with the Wind” summarizes, in a very simple way, a daily challenge faced by rural producers when applying agrochemicals on fields.

Winds above 15 kilometers per hour are a frequent reality and can carry sprayed droplets over a distance of 30 or 40 meters and even kilometers depending on the method used.

The economic impact on production is considerable, especially when combined with evaporation losses caused by hot and low air on humid days, leading to less products reaching their targets.

In other words, this process leads to a waste in agrochemicals, such as herbicides and fungicides, and risks spreading them to unwanted areas and reducing the effectiveness of pest or disease management systems.

“If the drop is too thin, the wind carries or evaporates more quickly, which reduces spray efficiency. However, these losses can be drastically reduced with the use of a good anti-rust surfactant,” said Jeferson E. Philippsen (Product Manager at Oro Agri).

Philippsen cites the example of an anti-drift recently launched by the company in Brazil called “AIRTRUCK,” which he describes as another product with high-performance application technology.

Made from plant extracts, the product increases the median volumetric diameter of a drop, making it heavier.

With the use of the right product and the correct regulation of the sprayer, a farmer can improve spraying efficiency by about 20%, Philippsen added.

By increasing the viscosity of the syrup, the new surfactant decreases the number of droplets prone to drift or evaporation, usually those with a diameter equal to or less than a hair.

Another agent of efficiency loss is foam. AIRTRUCK avoids the production of foam inside the spray tank. Few producers are aware of the problem, but the greater the volume of foam the less product will reach the crop.
“And the more foam that forms, more product residue can stick to the tank walls, making it more difficult to clean and leading to the contamination of crops during the next spraying,” warned Lucas Rafael Maesta Dias (Specialist in Application Technology at Oro Agri).
 

In addition to causing an anti-corrosion effect, standardizing droplet size to the desired diameter and reducing the amount of foam, the new product does not change the pH of the solution and does not cause phytotoxicity, which could lead to the excessive concentration of agrochemicals in the leaf.

However, AIRTRUCK does not eliminate the need to use a spray modifying agent.

An alternative is to use other surfactants that increase assimilation capacity, such as WETCIT, another Oro Agri product, which allows different agrochemicals to be completely homogenized and absorbed in up to 15 minutes by the leaf.

The required dosage for applying AIRTRUCK varies from 50 to 150 milliliters per hectare in terrestrial applications and 50 milliliters per hectare when aerial.

 

Sprayer maintenance influences drift
 

According to Dias, a common mistake made by producers is not changing the tip of the spray nozzle according to the product used. A fungicide, for example, must be applied with an empty cone tip and a herbicide requires a fan tip, generating thicker drops.
 

“Empty cone tip for herbicides will produce a very fine and easily derivable drop. For this reason, the ideal is to always use the right tip for each type of application,” Dias recommended.

In addition to the tips, each nozzle requires a different pressure setting. The pressure gauge must be in perfect condition to check the correct pressure for each set of nozzle. This requirement is also neglected by producers.
 

In other words, sprayer maintenance directly affects spraying efficiency. Tips like these can be obtained from Dias through the OROTECH 360 Program, which is an initiative launched by Oro Agri to improve the efficiency of spraying on agricultural crops across Brazil and improving the sustainability of agricultural land. 

 
The original Portuguese version is from Planeta Folha.