Tag: continuous rinse

  • Horsch Leeb sprayer gives people what they want with 6.300 VL model

    Horsch Leeb sprayer gives people what they want with 6.300 VL model

    Theodor Leeb started building self-propelled sprayers in Bavaria, Germany in 2001 and formed a partnership with Horsch LLC in 2011 (Horsch has been selling tillage and seeding equipment in North America since 2001 and has 17 dealers in the prairie provinces). The resulting company, Horsch Leeb Application Systems GmbH, is headquartered in Landau a.d. Isar, about 120 km NE of Munich. There they build pull-type and self-propelled sprayers, employ 350 staff, and had sales of approximately $80 M USD in 2019.

    This is no Johnny come lately to the sprayer scene.

    Their current flagship sprayer in North America is the Horsch Leeb 6.300 VL. I spent a day with Mike Wasylyniuk, Product Marketing Manager for Horsch, in Crossfield, Alberta to look it over.

    The Numbers

    The sprayer chassis holds a 1700 US gallon stainless steel tank and two 100 gallon clean water tanks for a total liquid capacity of 1900 gallons. A stainless steel Pentair Hypro centrifugal pump provides the flow to the boom, and a second pump is dedicated to the clean water tanks. The sprayer is powered by a familiar FPT 6.7 L producing 310 hp. The boom is 120’ wide in 5 articulated sections with 10’ nozzle spacing fitted with Raven Hawkeye Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). Top spraying speed is 20 mph, top transport is 30 mph. Horsch claims a dry weight of 32,000 lbs when fitted with Goodyear LSW 900 50R46.

    The Horsch Leeb 6.300 VL near Crossfield, AB October 2021.

    A central tubular frame creates room for four-wheel steer that has an interior turning radius of 3 m. Wheels are suspended via hydropneumatics linked to the frame with double wishbones. Track width adjusts from 120″ to 160″, independently, allowing different track widths front and rear without pinning an axle in place. Standing beside the front wheel, one has with easy access to fuel and oil filters, the radiator is on top of the machine facing up with an air-chuck outlet for cleaning.

    Four wheel steer improves maneuverability but more importantly, reduces front wheel plowing and allows use of common wheel track in headland turns.

    Plumbing

    Any loyal reader of Sprayers101 knows that we believe the biggest room for improvement in spraying is in the plumbing. Horsch Leeb seems aware of this. First, it does away with sight tubes on the tank and relies on a more accurate digital float that reads down to an empty tank. Tank slope position is considered using a gyro mounted at the rear of the sprayer. The tank can be filled with the solution pump or from the tender truck using 3” side or front fill locations. It has auto shutoff when a target amount is reached. As is common, the majority of valves are motor operated to allow automation.

    Fill station on right side of sprayer contains a 3″ fill connection as well as a 2″ drain

    The recirculating boom plumbing is standard North American 1” OD stainless steel to suit any off the shelf nozzle body clamp. It pressurizes from both ends when spraying and returns to tank from the outside of the boom when nozzles shut off or when priming or flushing. The recirculation can run during transport, allowing boom priming en-route to the field, or continuous flushing with a cleaning solution in the main tank on the way home.

    Recirculating boom feed and return lines are standard 1″ OD stainless steel.

    The second pump, an Italian Annovi Reverberi 185 BP diaphragm, powers the continuous cleaning function. It draws from the clean water tank and can push this water to the boom for overnight storage when the tank has solution left, or to the tank’s wash-down nozzles for a continuous clean at the end of a job. In continuous clean mode, the solution pump continues to supply the boom while the cleaning water washes the walls and dilutes the remainder. The tank and boom can be washed with a minimum of liquid, and the process is automated using cab or side monitor controls.

    Dedicated to the clean water tanks, this diaphragm pump can push water to the boom, to the wash-down
    Stainless tank with baffle

    The system even has a winterizing button that controls all the necessary valves to distribute antifreeze from the clean water tanks throughout the plumbing system in minutes. Remaining antifreeze in the tank can be returned to the drum at the fill station with a convenient camlock drain.

    Readout of tank levels and pump pressure via the external monitor. Priming, cleaning and winterizing routines are available.

    Some may gloss over plumbing paragraphs in haste, but let’s not underestimate the magnitude of these features. We are talking about a plumbing system that can prime the boom without spraying, spray the field, then spray out any remainder while rinsing the tank, air purge the boom, then rinse the boom without leaving the cab or wasting material unnecessarily. Even the system strainers have flush capability that returns any residue to a removable fine mesh filter before the liquid dumps back to the tank. Such a design saves time and money and pays in acres per hour.

    Boom

    The 120’ boom is well built and has channels for wiring harnesses that are neatly zip-tied in place. An aluminum shield covers the nozzle bodies at the front to protect them from any ground contact.  Access is relatively convenient through ports on the other side. The fitted triple nozzle bodies should be enough to suit most needs. The swing-away has a sturdy steel tube on the leading edge to absorb and deflect any sudden impact. There is no exposed plastic. The recirculating boom plumbing is stainless steel throughout except at hinges, where the rubber hose loop is protected from chafing by an additional sleeve.

    The sturdy boom is shielded where the nozzles are mounted to protect them from impact. Note the vertical hinge that permits improved contour-following.
    The break-away section has additional protection via a stainless steel pipe that absorbs and deflects impact.
    Access to the 10″ spaced nozzles and PWM solenoids is via the rear of the boom.

    The Leeb philosophy is to design sprayers that control drift at the source without reliance on extremely coarse sprays that can hamper efficiency. They’ve chosen boom height as the key variable and built the boom to make this possible. First, they needed to design a system that can reliably hold the boom low and level.

    Low, uniform boom height for drift reduction is the stated goal of the Horsch Leeb sprayer

    To that end, three pivot points are used to provide independence of the tractor unit and the boom. The first is at the centre rack from which the boom hangs but can pivot thanks to the same gyro that helps read the tank level. A sudden tractor movement due to ruts, for example, can then be compensated. The wings are the second pivot point (as it is for all sprayers), and a third point is halfway out the wings, where a hinge allows for up or down adjustments to better suit the land contour.

    A giro, visible just above the backup camera, monitors the tractor aspect relative to the boom.
    The vertical boom pivot can help prevent unnecessarily high boom ends or ground strikes.

    The height sensors have a modest look ahead slant, and the company claims that 8” boom height at 10 mph is possible. We certainly tried that in the field, and after multiple runs up and down a local field with modest knolls we did not strike ground, although the boom ends did rise significantly on occasion. The claim of such low booms will be a point of considerable testing and debate.

    Eight sensors provide boom height feedback.

    To take advantage of the low heights, narrower 10″ nozzle spacings are needed. The boom therefore has 144 nozzles instead of the usual 72, each half the flow rate. This is new territory for PWM, where the smaller tips are not as widely available. For example, a traditional 5 gpa tip at 20” and 12 mph is 03 in size, with 10” spacing this is now 015.  Smaller sizes require more attention to filtering, and they have inherently greater drift potential. This would only be a problem at the lower application rates.

    Because PWM allows for individual nozzle control, the operator can select 20” spacing, based on either of the 10” positions. This means one can spray with 20” spacing and then switch to a different nozzle simply by selecting the alternate.

    The lower boom height can offer unique advantages. The first of these is drift control. Droplets emerge from the tip at about 70 km/h, and this initial speed prevents even the small ones from drifting. The higher the boom, the more they slow down before targetting, creating drift potential. Wind speeds also tend to be lower nearer to the ground.

    Second, the beneficial effects of twin fans or angled single tips are greater with low booms. Readers will know that one of the fundamental prerequisites for successful angled sprays in Fusarium head blight (FHB), for example, are low booms. We may be in for some positive outcomes.

    The User Experience

    The Class cab has the usual creature comforts with a buddy seat, four cup holders, bluetooth radio and a phone mount. It can be fitted with any ISOBUS monitor, the one we had was equipped with the Raven Viper 4. The climb up the ladder is not as stair-like as the North American sprayers, but the treads are large and there are plenty of handholds so you can climb one-handed and bring your lunch or toddler along for the day.

    There is one native Horsch monitor that controls the chassis, wheel spacing, engine specs, speed, etc. It’s controlled using a rotary button selector like the one in many cars, a wheel that highlights items by turning, then selects them with a push. The second, an ISOBUS monitor, handles the rate control and thus creates easy compatibility with a variety of aftermarket monitors.

    The joystick is backlit and buttons can be customized. Like the Fendt stick, a push forward sets the speed and it can return to the neutral position without changing that speed. A pull back is required to slow down.  It takes a bit of getting used to. Motion can also be foot operated with a speed pedal and foot brake.  Cruise control has two preset speeds, and boom height can be raised to preset values when the master switch is shut off to facilitate a headland turn. The top two thumb buttons are Master on/off and autosteer resume.

    There is no throttle control. The sprayer decides how much throttle is needed to maintain speed, saving noise and fuel when it can. Throttling up was noticeable as we climbed hills during our test drive, returning to lower rpm as we descended while maintaining our cruise control speed.

    Some touches

    • a hand wash station at the ladder to prevent contaminating the hand-holds or cab
    • a camera focused on the centre rack nozzles that are invisible from the cab
    • cameras showing front wheel position
    • mud guards behind rear wheels to protect boom
    • Rain cover over electronics mounted on centre rack
    • A clean underbelly with good clearance and tow hooks front and back
    • Inductive (wireless) phone charging mount

    Overall Impression

    It’s clear that Horsch Leeb wants to succeed in North America. I’ve hardly ever seen a company so bent on delivering what the market wants (for familiarity and compatibility) while delivering what it knows they need (like plumbing and drift control). Spending the day with Mike I learned how quickly the engineers and fabricators implemented his suggestions at the factory. That is perhaps the most promising aspect of all, a company that listens to its customers and continually evolves its product as a result.

  • Plumbing Projects That Make Spraying Easier and Safer

    Plumbing Projects That Make Spraying Easier and Safer

    Some of our biggest struggles in spraying involve the start and end of each spray day.

    When starting a new field after the sprayer is cleaned, we need to prime the boom. If it’s full of water, that water has to be purged and the question is always for how long and where to do this (pro tip at bottom of article).

    At the end of the day, we should ideally clean the sprayer. During that process, we may struggle with waste disposal, including large rinsate amounts, and course, the uncertainty of whether the job is actually done (since clean water looks exactly the same as contaminated water).

    If not cleaning the entire sprayer plumbing, we should at least rinse the boom, even if we’re returning to the same product the following day. It can prevent future problems.

    These tasks are complicated by the increasingly convoluted plumbing featured on modern sprayers. Ask someone to explain their sprayer’s plumbing system to you one day. It’s a long story! A bright spot is the well-engineered, compact, and accessible Agrifac system.

    Fortunately, virtually any sprayer can be modified to suit your needs. Let’s talk about a few ideas for a winter project:

    1. Boom flush. It’s good practice to flush clean water through your boom at the end of spraying even if the main tank remains full of product. Some sprayers have an air purge system to eliminate liquid from the plumbing and that is a great feature. A water flush should follow that purge so that any residual pesticide is diluted and removed before it can dry on and become hard to remove later.  First you’ll need a clean water tank on the sprayer (150 gal is enough). Second, plumb a feed so that this clean tank can be the sole source of the water supplied to the solution pump. Select this source, shut return lines down or off, and pump clean water through boom.  Sprayers that have an auto-rinse cycle will likely be able to draw clean water, but may not be able to push it to the boom, directing it to the wash-down nozzles instead. Check to see what’s possible, and make the changes you need.
    2. Clean water pump. Installing a second pump dedicated to the clean water tank has several advantages. We’ve talked about continuous rinsing before, here, and here, as a way to dilute the tank remainder faster. It requires installation of a second pump dedicated to clean water. Additionally, give this pump the option to deliver water to the boom, not just the wash-down nozzles. Now it can be used to rinse water through the boom. The main challenge is to obtain a pump capacity that can match the needs of the boom and/or the wash-down nozzles.
    3. Boom ends. We’ve mentioned this part of the boom many times. Boom ends must be flushed regularly to get rid of product and possibly debris that gets stuck there. A simple way to achieve this is to use the Express Nozzle Body End Caps from Hypro. These bleed air continuously, and also prevent accumulation of dead-end contamination. They do need to be flushed, and this can be done by pulling a plug or rotating the turret to an open (no nozzle ) position.
    1. Recirculating boom. This is a significant change, but worth considering. Conventional plumbed booms are separated into five to 13 sections. Each has two ends at which the spray stops and where air and contamination can accumulate (see point #3). Each section feed has a shutoff valve.  Once the spray mixture leaves the pump and bypass valve, it is committed to leaving the sprayer.  In a recirculating boom, the boom becomes a part of the tank and the liquid can return to the tank if desired. Spray is pressurized at one or both ends, and valve positions determine its flow. Sectional control is achieved with individual nozzle shutoff, air or electric.
      1. Three advantages:
        (a) the boom can be primed with new product without spraying. The surplus goes back to the tank.
        (b) the boom can be flushed with water without spraying while material is still in tank, and without spilling anything on the ground. Again, the surplus goes back to the tank.
        (c)  high resolution sectional control with individual nozzle shutoff is a byproduct of this design. Fast response, high res, saves money.
    2. Steel lines. Steel cleans easier than plastic, and this material makes a lot of sense for booms. But it also makes sense for the boom feeds, currently handled by black rubber hose.  This hose is a literal black box. We can’t see inside it, and we don’t know if and where potential contamination resides. It has considerable surface area. Consider replacing portions of your feed lines with steel. The boom is the obvious candidate. Aside from easier cleanout, it also helps with faster nozzle shutoff because it doesn’t expand with pressure.

    A word about dumping the tank on the ground. It’s a bad practice for many reasons. Let’s examine just one of those. When you spray a product at 10 gpa, you actually cover each square meter with about 10 mL, or 1/3 oz, of spray mix. When you flush your boom ends on the ground, you’re probably dropping 2 or 3 gallons in the same area. That’s 1000 times the label rate at each boom end, 10 to 26 times per boom. If you dump your tank remainder and all the hoses, say 20 or 30 gallons, that’s 10,000 times the label rate if it covers 1 sq meter. That’s leaching, runoff, residual potential, and not a good story.

    Many of the changes we outlined above help prevent that from being necessary.

    Pro Tip: To find out how much water your plumbing (from the pump to the boom ends) holds, do this: After cleaning with water and before spraying an EC formulation (white milky appearance in tank, some crop oils are ECs) reset your sprayed gallons on your rate controller. Start spraying and watch for the last nozzle on your furthest and longest section to spray white. Stop spraying and check your sprayed gallons. That’s your volume. No matter the size of nozzle or application volume, it stays constant. To be sure the boom is primed with a new mix, spray until those gallons are reached and you’re set.

  • My Sprayer Santa Wish List

    My Sprayer Santa Wish List

    Dear Sprayer Santa,

    “I tried to be good this year.  It was hard, though.  Yes, I know that fast driving causes drift and lots of other problems.  But I couldn’t help it – the 375 horses under the hood needed the exercise.  I honestly didn’t mean it.  I’d have stopped had the air-ride not cushioned all the impacts so well.  I had no idea, really.  The cab was so quiet.  I’m sure that plume of spray and dust behind my sprayer didn’t cause any damage.  I mean, nobody called me, anyways.  I had no choice, after spending 2 hours cleaning out the tank and having to do another three quarters before the forecast rain.  So please, Santa, can I have a bigger sprayer?  Please? I think I need it…to, errr…to…to feed the world.  Yeah, that’s right, Santa Baby.  I need it to grow food for others.  So how about it?”

    I wake up in a cold sweat.  Well, if there was a Sprayer Santa, he’d hear lots of excuses about these sorts of things from applicators afraid of getting a lump of coal on Christmas Day, a black nozzle so to speak.

    So why don’t we stop making excuses and solve the problem by making sprayers that focus on the right things?

    Here’s my “no more excuses” wish list:

    1. Increase transport speeds, reduce field speeds. Let’s establish gear ranges which save time getting to the field, and ensure a better quality job once we get there. Let’s focus on productivity without resorting to the easy, but bad option.  Speed comes at a cost.  More horsepower.  More fuel. More structural stength. More weight.  None of it cheap. Or good.
    2. Increase boom width. This one’s a productivity powerhouse.  It’s every bit as good as travel speed, on a percent gain basis, and much cheaper.  Where else in the world is there a better opportunity for wider booms?  The earth’s temperate plains are almost without exception wide, and more or less flat.  With the help of autosteer and automatic boom height, why should 120 ft be the limit? Many aftermarket manufacturers offer booms at 150 ft.  But why stop there?  Sure, we’ll need some engineering to make it work.  But the fact is that wide booms, coupled to slower speeds that require less horsepower, can have the same productivity.  Not a bad tradeoff.
    3. Explore lighter materials. Sure, Ford was ridiculed by GM for offering aluminim trucks.  But when weight is important, alternate materials can make the impossible possible. Booms that weigh many thousands of pounds require so much strength just to carry their own weight, there are diminishing returns.  And the result is that we are stuck with narrow booms.  Let’s get inventive with alloys and composites.
    4. Focus on time saving features. On any given day, we are given maybe 6 hours of good spraying conditions, some in the morning, some in the evening, and perhaps a few in between. This can be interspersed with several days of bad conditions.  What a waste to spend this precious time not actually spraying, but rather filling, cleaning, transporting, getting un-stuck, figuring. In a business where timing is so important, and where a late application can have serious yield implications, we should be spending a greater proportion of time spraying. We need help to minimize downtime.
    5. Dedicated clean water pumps and small sumps. Want to clean out the tank faster? Rather than relying on batch mode, reducing concentration by serial dilution, consider adding a dedicated pump to your clean water saddle tank.  Introducing clean water through the wash-down nozzles while at the same time spraying out the sump dramatically increases dilution power with less water. And of course, the smaller the sump and recirculating reservoir, the faster the job will get done.
    6. Recirculating booms. I initially wrote these off as a bad idea when they offered a single pressure entry point (on one end) followed by an exit on the other. Over 120 ft, you’d surely see pressure drops of 10 psi – unacceptable. But with modern designs offering up to four pressure entry points (both ends and middle) these issues appear to have been eliminated. And with clever plumbing, the boom can act as an extension of the tank, making priming and cleaning faster and easier.  Sectional control is now governed by individual shutoff valves, offering customizable, fast, positive shutoff.
    7. Better flow and droplet size control. 2016 promises to be one of the most exciting years for new atomizers, with new entries in the twin fluid, pulse-width modulation, and multiple nozzle markets. But there’s still lots of room for improvement. To the young engineers reading this, give us a nozzle that provides a 10-fold range of flow rates, each at the same pattern angle and droplet size.  Let this nozzle offer easy control of droplet size from Medium to Ultra Coarse at each flow rate. How hard can this be? Make it affordable and reliable, with consistent flow rates and a long wear life.  I think we’re ready to pay for this.
    8. Easy cleaning materials. Every year, it’s a guessing game. Are all the Group 2 residues removed from the tank and booms before you spray your LibertyLink canola? How can you be sure?  Well, by checking your canola two weeks later, of course!  In the meantime, all we can do is offer hope with ever more rigorous cleaning protocols, one-upping last year’s efforts to ensure that nothing got left behind.  How about tank, fitting, hose, boom, and nozzle body designs engineered to eliminate these problems?  How about a guarantee to that effect by the sprayer manufacturer?  It’s going to take more than the occasional stainless steel component.  If we have enough knowledge in fluid dynamics to send an F1 sports car into a turn at 250 km/h, then surely we can design a hydraulic system that self-cleans!
    9. Better aerodynamics. Let’s face it, we can’t control drift just by making sprays coarser. Eventually we’ll reduce coverage too much and this will hurt our important contact products the most. Instead, we need sprayer and boom designs that facilitate the transport of droplets towards their target, avoiding drift. Maybe the shape of our tractor units and boom components will play a role here, maybe the nozzle pattern needs a re-evaluation. Maybe shrouds will return. One thing’s for sure – we can’t simply drive faster and expect coarser sprays to solve the problem.

    So that’s my list.  I’m sure it’s just a beginning.

    What’s on your list?

    Lee Valley Safety Goggles

    *I have a confession to make.  I’m secretly hoping for those Lee Valley German Safety Goggles for Christmas.  Protecting your eyes has never been cooler.

  • Cleaning Your Sprayer

    Cleaning Your Sprayer

    We all know the importance of cleaning out a sprayer. It protects a sensitive crop. It protects people working with the sprayer. It protects the sprayer and its components. But cleaning the sprayer is a pain. Here are some tips to make it easier.

    Some herbicide label instructions are cumbersome, requiring many flushes with full tanks of water. Many applicators look for shortcuts and hope they get away with it. It doesn’t have to be guesswork. The following is a checklist that may help.

    Be Prepared

    A few supplies can help ensure a clean sprayer tank.

    • A defoaming agent saves water and time
    • A cleaning agent (commercial products, or simple household ammonia) is useful, and recommended, for Group 2 products except the imidazolinones.
    • A supply of clean water, preferably with its own pump, and a pressurized spray hose helps clean the sprayer inside and out.
    • A wash-down nozzle (whose flow requirements can be met by the clean water pump) can automate the tank wash-down.
    • A bucket and brush for rinsing screens is very useful.

    Products to Watch:

    The products most frequently implicated in sprayer contamination are two members of the Group 2 modes of action: the sulfonyl ureas (e.g., thifensulfuron (Refine) and tribenuron (Express)), and the triazolopyrimidines (e.g., florasulam (Frontline, PrePass) and pyroxsulam (Simplicity)). Since these herbicides dissolve better at higher pH, proper cleanout usually requires ammonia, a weak base that raises the solution pH. The third member of Group 2 products, the imidazolinones (imazethapyr (Pursuit), imazamox (Solo, Odyssey), imazamethabenz (Assert), imazamox (Ares,  Adrenalin, Altitude or Viper)), tend not be implicated in as many residue issues, and don’t require ammonia for cleanout.

    Be Prompt and Thorough

    Remove pesticide from mixing and spray equipment immediately after spraying – it makes the job easier. The main areas of concern are the tank wall, sump, plumbing (including boom ends), and filters. First, spray the tank completely empty while still in the field. It’s sometimes OK to cover previously sprayed areas – all herbicides must be crop-safe at twice the label rate to be registered by the PMRA. Take care with residual products that may create problems down the road. Reduce the rate or choose a fallow field to be certain. Second, add 10 x the sump’s remnant of clean water, circulate, ensuring agitation is on, and spray it out in the field as well. Repeat. These two rinsing steps will take care of the majority of the cleaning and won’t take very long. The less remaining volume there is in your tank after the pump draws air, the less water is needed to dilute this remainder to an acceptable concentration. Having a clean water tank on the sprayer and a wash-down nozzle makes this job easier.

    Visual Inspection

    Herbicide residue may precipitate out of solution in some parts of the sprayer or plumbing. A thorough visual inspection can identify these problem areas and ensure that they are cleaned properly.

    Tank Wall

    Removal of residues from tank walls is best accomplished with a direct, pressurized spray. Make sure all parts of the wall have been in contact with clean water. Use a wash-down nozzle if it provides complete and vigorous coverage of the interior tank surface.

    Sump

    Empty the sump as completely as possible by spraying it out. Any spray liquid or herbicide concentrate remaining in the sump area will be re-circulated in the sprayer. The only way to remove any remaining herbicide is through dilution by repeatedly adding water, and leaving as small a remainder as possible.

    Plumbing and Boom

    Plumbing can be a significant reservoir of herbicide residue. Removal from plumbing can be achieved by pumping clean water through the boom while ensuring that all return and agitation lines also receive clean water and all residue is flushed out. This may require opening and closing various valves several times, and repeating the process with new batches of clean water. Boom ends can extend up to 6” beyond the last nozzle at each end of each boom section. These ends must be flushed to removed trapped residue. A useful product that does this automatically is the Pentair Hypro Express Nozzle Body End Cap, or better yet, consider recirculating booms.

    Dilution

    The most effective use of a volume of rinse water is to divide it equally across several repeat washes. Assuming a 10 gallon sump remainder, three washes with 30 gal each are as effective as two washes with 70 gallons each, and equal a single 600 gal wash.

    It’s even more efficient to use a separate clean water pump, introducing clean water as the rinsate is sprayed out. This saves water and time, and results in even more dilution.

    Filters

    Nozzle screens and in-line filters can be a significant reservoir for undiluted or undissolved herbicide and are one of the most overlooked parts of sprayer decontamination. Remove all filters and nozzle screens and thoroughly clean these with fresh water. Run clean water through plumbing leading to the screens.

    Nozzle Bodies

    Nozzle bodies can harbour herbicide mixture. When cleaning a spray boom, rotate through all nozzles in a multiple body to ensure clean water reaches all parts of these assemblies. Remove screens that may have been used with herbicide.

    Tank Cleaning Adjuvants

    Adjuvants such as ammonia can assist the tank decontamination process, especially with sulfonyl urea and triazolopyrimidine-containing products. Ammonia does not neutralize herbicides, but it does raise the pH of the cleaning solution which helps sulfonyl urea herbicides dissolve. When decontaminating after an oily (EC) formulation, the use of a wetting agent such as AgSurf will assist in removing oily residue that may trap SU herbicide on tank and hose material. Commercial tank cleaning products that contain ingredients for removing persistent deposits are available.

    Tank and Boom Material

    Both plastic and stainless steel are common tank and wet boom materials, and both can be cleaned using the above procedures.  However, stainless steel is easier to clean, and this means that less time may be required. Consider the choice of materials a productivity factor in your next purchase or upgrade decision.

    Rinsate Disposal

    Always spray out the tank in the field. Do not drain the tank while stationary unless you are certain it is free of pesticide and that you are away from sensitive areas and waterways. Consider a continuous rinse system. Consider building a biobed for safe disposal of dilute pesticide waste.

    Sprayer cleanout will probably never be the easiest job on the farm. But looking at it in a smarter way can prevent frustration and save time.