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| Last summer a neighbor had a little drift onto the first 10 rows of an organic corn field of mine. It was obviously sprayer drift and I see it quite often with these larger JD sprayers with back booms that are moving fast enough to create their own jetwash. From the start of the conversation, I was very up front that I had no intentions of any sort of settlement, I just wanted him to be aware so it didn't happen again to a much larger extent. Even with this, he denied that it could possibly be spray...."it must have been something else". Umm...no. It was quite obvious since it was only along part of one side where his farm touches mine.
I farm both organic and conventional ground...I completely understand how this can happen...mother nature isn't very cooperative during some spraying seasons. Its too bad he couldn't man up. Had this happen with a different neighbor five years ago...he took complete responsibility and offered his insurance. I said no, just please be more careful from now on. A year later, when he wanted to attach to my tile line, I asked him to divert through a wet spot on my side and I would pay for half the tile...in the end, he paid for all the tile and got my wet spot because I had treated him right on the chemical drift.
I will reiterate...those large sprayers are drifting...BIG TIME some days. I've seen it hit my corn across a gravel road and 100' buffer strip. So please, everyone, be aware. I think the main thing is to slow down well before the end of the field when spraying in the same direction as the wind. The combination of a 10-15 mph wind and a 20 mph rig lets those particles fly a long way. | |
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Organic guys- Field separation?
