Tortured Numbers: Basic Statistics for Growers

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 […]

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Putting a Number on Pesticide Waste

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 […]

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The Most Important Developments in Spraying

Some things have improved a lot. Others have lost ground. Some years ago, a few of us weed scientists sat around a table and debated the most important developments in agriculture in our lifetimes. It was a great discussion, and we arrived at a few that included direct seeding (for its soil and moisture conservation […]

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Categorizing air-assist sprayers by air-handling design

This article was co-developed with Mark Ledebuhr of Application Insight, LLC. Air handling systems Air handling systems can be specialists or generalists; some are designed to do one thing very well while others are more adaptable but not as precise. Fan type plays a big role in determining a sprayer’s abilities. Their native characteristics make […]

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Pesticide Safety for Student Workers

This article is based on a presentation by Dr. Melanie Filotas, who delivered it as part of the 2019 agriculture summer student orientation day. Most crops are sprayed with organic or synthetic pesticides at some point during the growing season. Use caution before entering any area where crops are grown (e.g. corn field, nursery, greenhouse, orchard […]

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