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As technology advances, farmers continue to evaluate the efficacy of their practices. GROW SUSTAINABILITY 25 | Pulse Research Report Farmers and industry in Alberta have been talking about spray drift for as long as there have been products to spray. Back when crops and chemicals were fewer in number, and everyone used a tractor-pulled sprayer, agricultural engineers like Hubert Landry knew all about the mechanics of drift and how to prevent it. Then, spraying changed. "There are two aspects that are fairly new," said Landry, Research Scientist (Engineering) with Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute (PAMI). "The first aspect is that self-propelled sprayers have become quite large and capable of high speeds. We need to know how these high speeds affect the spray quality. The second aspect is new chemical formulations that can cause significant damage on unintended crops." Over the next four years, with funding from the Integrated Crop Agronomy Cluster, Landry and a cross-disciplinary team of engineers and crop scientists will gather hard numbers to better understand how drift functions under contemporary conditions. MEASURING REAL-WORLD CONDITIONS OF SPRAY DRIFT IN THE FIELD In the first two years of the study, the group will collect data allowing it to model the spray wake of today's big, quick, high-clearance sprayers. It will measure air flow patterns around the machine and its nozzles and pull together data to understand how the spray is released. They'll also quantify how spray drift is affected by factors such as wind, boom height and more. From there, crop plots will be planted to test the sensitivity of different crops to drift when various products are applied under different conditions. This aspect has become more important as new crops have entered growers' rotations. As more soybeans have been planted in Alberta, for example, concerns about dicamba drift have intensified. "The dicamba and soybean combination has been at the forefront of interest because soybeans are quite sensitive to dicamba, and there are newer formulations using this herbicide," Landry said. With today's more diverse crop rotations, plus more extensive herbicide choices and high-tech sprayers, the possibility of unintended spray drift is a real concern. Growers are challenged to juggle optimum pest control, while carefully safeguarding the environment and maintaining good relations with their farming and non-farming neighbours. Given those challenges, it's good to know these researchers are on the case. The research by Landry and his team will bring together detailed drift management information like safe distances for drift, buffer zones and threshold concentrations that may be of concern. The ultimate goal Landry sees is getting chemical on the ground with minimal collateral impact. "Zero drift would be ideal," Landry said, "but that's just not possible. We want to obviously minimize drift, but to do that, we need to understand it. With proper understanding of the factors in our research, we can better control drift and hopefully keep our crops, our waterways and our air quality safe." Ag engineer Hubert Landry wants to build a data set on spray drift, based on today's bigger self-propelled sprayers and newer chemical formulations. High-Capacity Sprayers Create Need for New Spray Drift Research PROJECT TITLE Spray Drift Management Under Changing Operational Requirements PROJECT LEAD Hubert Landry, PAMI

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