Spring Spraying

We started spraying our winter wheat crop two days ago.  We are applying a broadleaf and grass herbicide, a fungicide to help with disease control and foliar fertilizer.

Spraying is an exercise in patience.  It's the operation that is the most weather dependent of any that we do.  It can't be wet, it can't be cold, it can't be windy.....pretty much what spring around here is!  Some days you can only get a couple hours of spraying accomplished before the wind comes up.  Some days you can't start until noon because the dew is too heavy, (though we're not complaining about damp weather!).  Some days it's beautiful and sunny and warm, but the forecast is for frost overnight so you sit and twiddle your thumbs and get nervous and pace and use every ounce of discipline that you have, NOT to spray!

Thankfully, due to good planning and management by Reynald, we have a sprayer that covers a lot of ground in a short amount of time.  I took a few photos the day we started, to give you an idea of what we are doing.  My job is to drive the truck to the field after I have filled the big 3,000 gallon tank with fertilizer and loaded the herbicide alongside the big tank, all of which are located at our home shop.  Reynald's job is to drive the tractor!

Here we are filling the sprayer with product.

We use Indy to spray with.  It has cruise control which make for more even application.

Another look, this from the sprayer tank.  Seems like a long ways to the truck!

I am always amazed at how wide this sprayer is, 114 feet!!  Reynald travels between 8 and 10 MPH.  This is why he can get so much done in a day, weather permitting.