The picture shows one of these screw ups. The operator intended to put on 2.5 quarts of product and accidentally put 2.5 gallons of product on instead. You can see what it did to his corn. His 200 bushel corn suddenly became 100 bushel corn in places! But he has no weeds!
The sad thing is the sweet corn patch got the same recipe and sweet corn is weaker than field corn. It smoked the sweet corn and this is what was left of the field corn.
Actually, when I get too much herbicide on I see it not killing the target weeds and even other specie come in. If I get too good a kill on my weed spectrum to the point it hurts the crop, I see late grasses pop in because they have no competition when the pesticide "wears off" or is absorbed and moved away from the soil.
I've suffered through one all summer. It has pained my soul. The spray operator got about 2 ounces too many of a strong corn herbicide on my prize corn field and it has not looked right since the day it was sprayed. I suffered all year because of one mistake and I take great pride on how my crop looks. LuAnn and I will both suffer in the pocketbook from this operator error.
The job of spraying is a big one. There are so many chemicals and labels and different machines.
I don't complain when I have $8 an acre invested in a great spray job. $8 and 20 less bushels per acre, I complain.
Ed Winkle
2 extra ounces of corvus?
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry for your plight. Too much herbicide and wet spring weather are a tough combination. Herbicide injury from SU herbicides (basis then resolve) convinced us to switch to RR corn years ago.
Spraying is a thankless job. Operators never get commended on a good job because the herbicide is doing the work. They only hear about screw ups and resistant weeds.
My dad taught me crops are usually not as good as they look or not as bad as they look.
David Seck
I give my operators extra pay, gifts and lots of kudo's!
ReplyDeleteSpraying is a thankless job!
Your dad is a wise man!