Category: Multimedia

Videos, Books, Presentations, Songs and ePubs

  • Micron Woman – Guide to the World of Spray Droplets

    Micron Woman – Guide to the World of Spray Droplets

    You just finished a great spray day. Everything felt right! Your timing and product choice were bang-on, the weather was good, and your sprayer was calibrated. But, do you know what happened to the spray once it left the nozzle?

    The behavior of spray droplets, and how they interact with the target, can be tough concepts to teach. Ironically, the big problem is how tiny everything is.

    What if you could see what was happening from the droplet’s perspective?
    Join Jason and Tom as a lab accident during a solar eclipse brings them face to face with a mighty new heroine:

    Micron Woman!

    If you enjoyed the video, it’s not over yet! We’ve printed actual comic books as fun and useful resources for anyone that wants a copy. We’ll distribute what we have to interested parties at conferences (just ask!). If you teach adults or children about agriculture, and you’re interested in copies, let us know and we’ll see what we can arrange.

    You can also download the comic book here:

    DOWNLOAD COMIC

    Thanks to everyone that helped bring Micron Woman to life! Who knows, maybe we’ll meet her arch nemesis in episode II? Write us if this is something you’d like to see!

  • For Sale: Gently Used 1950s Boom Sprayer

    For Sale: Gently Used 1950s Boom Sprayer

    This article isn’t about best practices, or social contracts, or innovative new technologies. It’s just a fascinating bit of history. If it has any moral at all, perhaps it’s to remember where we came from. I wonder where we’ll be tomorrow?

    Let’s be clear – the practices described in this article are anachronistic and while I shouldn’t judge from my 2020 high-horse, they’re flat-out terrible. Don’t see them through nostalgic eyes. Instead, be thankful that sprayers and practices have evolved.

    Here’s the background. A colleague of mine, a grower and well-respected pesticide safety / sprayer expert, recently held a farm auction in Innerkip, Ontario. He sent me a photo of his family sprayer, used in Oxford county in the 50s and 60s. I fell in love with it.

    It was used to control broad leaf weeds in cereal crops. He recollected that thistle was a particularly painful issue. Especially when you had to grab hold of the grain sheaves and stook them. I confess I had to look up the term “stook“. They also sprayed a few cereal acres for neighbours, but never too far from home.

    A 1950s barrel sprayer. The frame would be attached to the front of a Massey Harris 44, suspending the 21 foot wet aluminum booms. The drum was supported on the tractor tongue. When you shut down, you picked up the booms and hung them on the fenders. The booms then leaked all over until they were empty.
    Fortunately, there was clear guidance for the operator. The speed and rate was written on the distribution head. Still somewhat legible.
    A rod would extend from distribution head to the tractor, supported on the steering column. The driver could select the boom: left, right, both or off. The distribution/filter head/pressure gauge (shown here) was supported on front of tractor. On the up side, there was no need for the driver to do a shoulder check. Here the distribution selector is set to ‘off’. The filter, shown here as well, was a metal screen wrapped in a cotton cloth (typically a flour bag).
    This is the line from the pressure side of the pump, entering the distribution unit. The butterfly screws made a tight connection… using canning jar rings as gaskets!
    Both the cotton bag on the filter and the pressure line were sealed with canning jar rings.
    When the broadcast work was done, they would set up a hand boom and spray the fence posts. Bare hands were the order of the day.
    Spraying the fence posts was a two-person job, with a driver in the tractor and a kid aiming the boom. Here’s a close-up of a flat fan nozzle on the hand boom.
    Here is the supply drum with opening for suction hose and screen. It served double-duty as pesticide tank and seat for the person holding the hand boom. Pesticide swished out onto the person sitting on the drum. Getting their butt wet as a matter of course. The drum was filled with a 1/2 inch hose right from the well.

    When the long season was through, it was over-wintered (with whatever spray liquid remained) in the cellar.

    We’ve come a long way.

  • Exploding Sprayer Myths (ep.4): Speed Spraying

    Exploding Sprayer Myths (ep.4): Speed Spraying

    All set for Star Wars VII
    All set for Star Wars VII

    With due respect to Mickey and Mr. Lucas, and the massive hype surrounding Star Wars Episode VII, we felt we should jump on the bandwagon. Here’s episode IV in our series of short, educational and irreverent videos made with Real Agriculture.

    If there’s a single take-home message in this episode it’s this:

    …may the force be with you – always.

  • Exploding Sprayer Myths (ep.12): The Buffer Zone

    Exploding Sprayer Myths (ep.12): The Buffer Zone

    In this episode of Exploding Sprayer Myths we reduce a complicated best practice to black and white… literally. Watch as Jason and Tom get a creepy lesson in the do’s and do not’s of no-spray areas. Under the watchful eye of Dr. Jim Todd (OMAFRA Industrial Crops Specialist and Rod Serling cos-player), brace yourself as you enter The Buffer Zone.

    Learn more about how vegetative filter strips mitigate runoff on this Health Canada webpage.

    Thanks to the staff at the Simcoe Resource Station and to RealAgriculture for making this video possible.

    And if you’re curious about the kitchen-appliance cameo, you’ll have refer back to earlier episodes.

  • If I had a Million Dollars – Parody

    If I had a Million Dollars – Parody

    If I had a Million Dollars

    Sung to the Tune of “If I had a Million Dollars” by The Barenaked Ladies

     

    If I had a million dollars

    (If I had a million dollars)

     

    Well, I’d buy you a farm

    (I would buy you a farm)

     

    And if I had a million dollars

    (If I had a million dollars)

    I’d buy you equipment for your farm

    Maybe a SeedHawk or a ConservaPak

     

    And if I had a million dollars

    (If I had a million dollars)

    Well, I’d buy you a K-Hart

    A nice no-till disk opener

    And if I had a million dollars, I’d buy hybrid seed

     

    If I had a million dollars

    I’d build a tender truck for our farm

    (If I had a million dollars)

    You could help

    You wouldn’t do no harm

     

    If I had a million dollars

    Maybe we could put a three inch pump

    In there somewhere

    We could just go there and fill up sprayers

    Like go on the deck and stuff

    And there’d all be totes and adjuvants laid out for us

    Like little solu-packs and things

    DuPont has solu-pack Group 2s

    But Dow doesn’t have dry Frontline

    Well, can you blame them?

    Yeah!

     

    If I had a million dollars

    (If I had a million dollars)

    Well, I’d buy you a sprayer

    But not a Gregson sprayer, that’s cruel

     

    And if I had a million dollars

    (If I had a million dollars)

    Well, I’d buy you a low-drift tip

    Yep, like an AirMix or a Wilger

     

    And if I had a million dollars

    (If I had a million dollars)

    Well, I’d buy you special fertilizers

    All them crazy micronutrient claims

     

    And if I had a million dollars I’d buy your leftover Score

    (If I had a million dollars)

    We wouldn’t have to walk to the store

    If I had a million dollars

    We’d take the Peterbilt, ’cause it costs more

     

    If I had a million dollars

    We wouldn’t have to eat Kraft Dinner

    But we never did

    Of course we didn’t, we had home cooking

    And real gravy, not ketchup

    That’s right, real gravy made from drippings

     

    If I had a million dollars

    (If I had a million dollars)

    Well, I’d buy you a used sprayer

    But not a SpraCoupe sprayer, that’s cruel

     

    And if I had a million dollars

    (If I had a million dollars)

    Well, I’d buy you a drone

    A Phantom, or AgEagle

     

    If I had a million dollars

    (If I had a million dollars)

    Well, I’d buy you a GrainVac

    Haven’t you always wanted a GrainVac?

     

    If I had a million dollars

    I’d stop your drift

    If I had a million dollars

    If I had a million dollars

    If I had a million dollars

    If I had a million dollars

    If I had a million dollars

    I would farm!