Near Intersection of I-35 & I-90 Southern Mn. | I have a Raven Sidekick Injection system on my pull type sprayer. For several years it was run with the Raven Sidekick console. The carrier was monitored and controlled by a Raven 450 console. This combination system works well.
A couple of years ago I switched to using my Insight with Direct Command for controlling the carrier and also made a "workaround" to have another LCM work with the Injection portion.
This year, Ag Leader released some Injection modules of their own. These CAN modules run the Raven Injection pump directly without the need of a Raven console.
These modules were released in limited quantities so select customers could put them to the real test. I have one of these and my results have been very positive.
I used it to apply Rup to our corn. The carrier tank carried the AMS water mixture. In some fields Impact was also added to the carrier mix for some added kick.
I am now ready to spray Rup on our soybeans. Due to the fact that the previous crop was Rup Corn, there are some areas with Volunteer corn from last year. Of course, this years Rup will not kill those corn plants. This means that some other product such as Select may be needed.
I am considering putting the AMS, water and Rup in the carrier tank and putting the Select in the Injection system. This would be in contrast to putting the Rup in the Injection tank.
This would have some advantages as I would be able to turn ON the Injection system only where I felt that the Select is necessary. This would not be a "spot" treatment where I would be turning the Injection ON/OFF when I saw an odd corn plant. That concept sounds good, but does not work out well due to the time lag between when the Injection pump starts and when the enhanced spray mixture hits the ground.
Instead, I might leave the Select OFF when going around the outside of a field where a neighboring desirable corn field is present to avoid any drift of the Select to those areas. Also I would be able to leave the Select OFF for those fields or large areas where it is not needed.
Since the recommended rate of Select is only 6 ounces/acre, applying it "straight" will not work out well in my situation since my Injection system will stall out at these lower flow rates due to my pump, width and ground speed.
My plan is to dilute the Select by combining it with water. I plan to mix the pure Select in a 1:4 ratio. That is one jug of Select with three jugs of water. The system would be setup to deliver a rate of 24 ounces/acre which should result in the proper rate of Select.
The reason that I picked this ratio is that my system works well delivering Rup at the 22 once/acre rate. Picking a different ratio should work also. I feel that this ratio should be easy to work with.
My 24 gallon injection tank will hold enough diluted Select to cover 128 acres ( 24 gallons x 128 ounces per gallon divided by 24 ounces per acre).
This should be a good mesh since my 1000 gallon sprayer will need to be refilled with carrier/Rup every 100 acres with a 10 gal/acre application rate of the carrier. That means that the Injection tank will still have some product left in the bottom of the tank when I refill.
I have not done this before but I see no reason that this shouldn't work. Since I have soft water in my shop I will probably use it for the dilution. I'm wondering if I should add a handful of AMS to this water also. I realize that AMS is normally added to the water in a Rup mix to treat the water before the Rup is added. Would adding a handful of AMS to the water before it is mixed with the Select be a good idea?
I needed to reconfigure my input switch settings in the configuration portion of the Insight setup. By default the input settings for my system were acceptable where the Injection was always used. The setup was that the Master switch would control the Injection channel and Boom switches 1 - 4 would control my boom sections. That meant that when a boom section was ON, that the injection pump would run at the proper speed to deliver the correct amount of product. When no booms were ON, the Injection pump stops which is proper.
Since I wanted the ability to shut OFF the injection pump for special areas, I needed a way to tell the system of my intentions. By changing the input switch settings I believe I was able to accomplish my goal.
I changed the control of the Injection channel from the Master switch (default) to the Boom 10 switch. The Boom 10 switch then becomes an enable switch for the Injection system.
In other words, when I'm spraying and want the diluted Select to be injected I should be able to just turn Boom 10 switch ON.
One slight drawback is that when I'm finished I may have a partial batch of diluted Select in the Injection tank. These leftovers can be drained and saved for another year. I should be able to anticipate the size of the last dilution so as not to have much left over.
The Injection tank would need to be cleaned throughly before any corn was sprayed where Rup was again used in the Injection system. I do not anticipate any problems with residual Select being retained in the lines for the future.
On the larger commerical rigs that we work with at the store, the situation of switching injected products is quite common. One solution is to have more than one injection tank and in other cases multiple injection pumps. On rigs with an air brake system, the air system can be used teed in to clear the injected lines when products are switched.
Any comments, questions or advice are all welcome.
Edited by tedbear 6/22/2008 10:15
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Cutting "Select" for use in an Injection System
