The Agronomists, Ep 26: Jason Deveau and Tom Wolf on all things sprayers

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See and spray technology, recirculating booms, and pineapples — that’s just a few of the topics discussed in this episode of The Agronomists.

To tackle what’s new in sprayer tech and how to do the best job spraying, there are no better experts to ask than our guests than Jason Deveau and Tom Wolf of Sprayers 101.

Catch a new episode of The Agronomists every Monday night at 8 pm E!

SUMMARY

  • Jason has published a book! Airblast 101 (Filling the void of the great big box of lies) took up a lot of Jason’s time over the past year. Go download a copy, or you can order a hard copy.
  • Jason’s job description: pretty much everything nobody else wants to do
  • Why are Jason and Tom such a good team? They come at things from different directions
  • While Jason was busy writing a book, Tom was looking at shiny new sprayer products: optical spot spray for one (green on green and green on brown)
  • Western Australian farmers happy with spot spraying tech
  • The confluence of three trends in one sprayer unit (another photo)
  • Will 80 per cent accuracy improve with machine learning? There might be things that machine learning can’t overcome
  • The new Amazone sprayer. Partnering with Bosch and xarvio. A 35 metre (120 ft) unit, fully lit, works at night, pulse modulating
  • If you miss 10 per cent on the pass, it doesn’t mean you’ll get 90 per cent of those escaped weeds, depends on why they escaped (maybe they’re hiding under a rock)
  • Are we behind? Canada has a bit of a tighter window for spraying, and there are different reasons for tech uptake
  • Clip 1: Canola School: The two parts to a proper spray tank cleanout
  • Sparge: running hot water through malt; and also a term Tom used in the video. We get to learn all kinds of new things
  • “I’ll remember that always, thank you”
  • Recirculating boom map, made of incredibly hardy pool noodles, not actually, this is just how Tom and Jason teach this concept
  • Dirty water, clean water, plus pneumatics. Please don’t steal our thunder on this Australia and Europe
  • “It’s possible to make complicated things easy to use”
  • DRT valve converts every section on the boom by making it into a recirculating section
  • Do stricter regulations regarding pesticide use in places like Aus and EU drive some of these innovations, faster than here in North America?
  • User safety, closed mixing systems
  • Clip 2: Spray Tips Special Edition: Is Your Boom Too High?
  • Old things becoming new again: pulse width modulation and nozzle selection affecting boom height
  • Spot sprayers is a small market still and the nozzles haven’t been developed yet
  • Horsch is a new entrant to North American sprayer market with a contour boom design. Tom is skeptical
  • What per cent of sprayers out there are using pulse width modulation?
  • If using a narrow spray angle in a spot spray system, do you need to put nozzles closer together?
  • Are the systems all the same as far as Case versus AgChem versus John Deere?
  • The third clip, which we won’t get to but we’ll include it for you here: Spray Tips Special Edition: Wakey-wakey! Getting Up Early to Spray — Is it Worth It?
  • What about shielded sprayer tech? Spraying paraquat between rows on sugar beets for example
  • So what’s the next big thing? Jason’s answer is… inappropriate? (he has a better answer later about hitting targets). Tom’s answer is that agronomy will always be our most powerful tool and he’s excited about intercropping and cover cropping

Other Episodes

The Agronomists (view all) Season 2 (2021) Episode 26
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