Spraying Hay Field

Nancy decided it was time to spray the hay field.

Got "Old John" her 48A ready to go.

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This year "Sam" our 51MT gets to pull the 200 gallon water buggy.

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Nancy is in charge of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wln-OoD_WuY">mixing</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdh0SyexDOg">spraying</a>.

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Was a good day to spray: about 60^o with sunshine and no wind creating drift.

Glad to see Spring coming around again.

What are you spraying for??? Around here it would need to be greener or taller to work on most weeds. I usually hit my alfalfa in the last week of April. I have been having the dickens of a time with dandelions. Never had any until three year ago. I think the seed I got that year had them in it. That field gets rotated this year. Sprayed it last fall with Roundup.
Can"t wait for the Roundup ready Alfalfa to get on the market.

The seed is here now and ready to sow. It made the final hurdle so now its here.

Looks like she knows what she's doing, did she grow up makeing moonshine?

We are spraying to kill the winter rye and the cool season broad leaf weeds.

Rye can make a good hay except the weather at the time it needs to be cut makes it hard to get the rye cured before it spoils.

Nice pics! I hope you not making the same mistake my Dad did about 40 yrs. ago and spraying it with 2-4-D. Although you may be spraying for something different down there. He killed about 40 a. of alfalfa. hay with it. I think he got glasses and started reading the instructions a little closer after that.

I see you've got the safety gear- rubber gloves up over the sleeves, safety glasses- B & D will be proud!

Shows the differences in the seasons by area- we have nothing growing yet- usually try to spray broadleaf weeds around May 15.

Name: Rick Kr (Reserved Name)
E-Mail:
Subject: Re: Spraying Hay Field
In Reply to: Spraying Hay Field posted by James Howell on March 07, 2011 at 20:10:02:
Body of Message:

"about 60o with sunshine and no wind creating drift"

You look really bundled up for 60F. We could use that right now. 10F this morning.

Will be spraying here end of March. By the way, do you wear a respirator when spraying roundup?

Rick

Temp was probably in the upper 40's when we started & high clouds. Before we finished, clouds were gone and it was pretty nice.

We set this sprayer up to minimize drift. The boom is close to the ground and the tips are pointed almost straight down. The tips we use combined with low pressure, form a large droplet size which also reduces drift.

We never spray if the wind speed is predicted to be 10+ mph because it will result in drift.

No, I don't wear a respirator. Also, try to stay upwind from the tank when mixing so I don't get any fumes.

I always use a heavy weight rubber gloves, protective eyewear and rubber boots.

I have clean water and soap to wash with if necessary.

We were spraying a mix of glyphosate (RU) and Rifle-D (2,4-D). The object was to kill anything that was green.

The only thing green at this point is stuff we don't want in the hay field. Its way too early for the coastal to be active.

Our target weeds were cool season grasses (winter rye) and broadleaf weeds.

James nice pics to get us up here thinking about spring! I swear the ground hog lied to us. We got 10-12" of snow Sunday nite into Monday. My ATV couldent even move this stuff, so I had to get out the FEL tractor. Another 3-5" of snow for Thursday! Spring is taking its sweet old time getting here... JayinNY

Looks like Christmas with you and the sprayer in red&green. lol

Nancy and I had planned on working on the tractor shed, but had perfect weather for spraying.

It was a little cool when we started, but warmed up around 3pm.

We both took some vacation time next week (Spring Break) and will do more spraying on the Bahia fields.

Hope photos of sunshine and soon-to-be green fields keeps y'all eager for Spring.

Getting ready to spray Alfalfa for Marshal rye and other cool weather grasses next week Then it will be fertilizer time and time to start pumping water.
gitrib