In North America, winter is agriculture conference and lecture season. Growers are inundated with graphs and charts and left to make sense of what they’re seeing. It might be an agrichemical rep promoting a new pesticide or a seed dealer comparing yields. Maybe an equipment dealer is illustrating return on investment. Even university researchers and government extension […]
Read More… from Tortured Numbers: Basic Statistics for Growers
Waste (noun): an act or instance of using or expending something to no purpose. In agriculture, environment and economy are intertwined. Producers strive to obtain the maximum return on their inputs. They study incremental returns and avoid applying more inputs than necessary, especially if conditions don’t warrant it. The financial incentive is powerful, and waste […]
It was Saturday morning in April, 2016 when I received an email from Steven Bierlink, an orchardist in Washington State. He was curious about the impact of air induction nozzles on lime-sulphur applications (intended to thin apple blossoms). Work-life balance notwithstanding, I happily grabbed a hot cup of coffee and we got on the phone. It […]
When I had to replace a pump on a small scale sprayer, I had a lot of questions about how they worked, their capacities, hose sizes, mounting solutions and fittings. I turned to the Pentair Hypro Shurflo catalog and found a very helpful guide on pages 2 – 10. This article summarizes the steps recommended […]
A properly-sized pump should produce more flow than is needed and work in conjunction with the atomizers to regulate that flow. Typical to high pressure pumps, a piston relief valve (aka regulator) should maintain the desired system pressure through the normal speed range of the sprayer, regardless of the number of booms (or boom-sections) that […]
Read More… from Pressure spikes and relief valves on air-assist sprayers