[VA Haymaker]

I may have asked this question before, but I can’t find it...

When you spray your hayfields with herbicide, what is your typical liquid gallons per acre? 10, 20, etc gallons per acre?

How many gallons is your sprayer?

We have a small sprayer and spray 10 gal per acre. We also have a 500 gallon sprayer and would like to go 20 gallons per acre, but perhaps 10 would suffice and keep us on the field longer vs more frequent fill-ups.

Just curious.

Thanks!
Bill

 

[slowzuki]

5-15 gallons per acre for roundup is typical, I’ve always used 10 gallons per acre but some folks have told me less can be better.

 

[AndyH359]

I spray at 20 gallons per acre when doing 2-4,D and Dicamba.

Two options to adjust your gallons per acre. 1. Adjust travel speed. If you are spraying at 10 gpa and want 20 gpa, cut your travel speed in half. 2. Buy/install different spray tips. If you look on the Tee-Jet website, they got a page of their different nozzles. You could buy a set of tips that spray at a higher rate (keep your travel speed the same) and get you to 20 gpa.

There are some fine nuances to the differences in spray rates when it comes to spray drift management, but if you are not overly concerned about spray drift based on what surrounds your fields, either spray rate is okay. In the end, do what works best for you on your farm.

 

[mstuck21]

15 gal per acre for me on roundup and other herbicides… can move across the field at a pretty good clip and seems to get the results I’m looking for

im running a 500 gal hardi navigator but only need 300-400 at a time unless all my alfalfa is on the same schedule but it usually isn’t

 

[VA Haymaker]

Thanks for the replies everyone - much appreciated!

 

[Edd in KY]

Isn't the real question is how much water is needed to spread the chemical so that every plant is wetted by the solution?
My experience is that 10 gal is a little short....15 is a bit more reliable, and 20 is pretty sure. But 20 means more refill trips, depending on sprayer tank size and field size. I dislike the job of spraying, so I try to do it in a way that one trip gets the job done for the year.

 

[Ray 54]

Different chemicals for different problems need greater or lesser amounts of water. Every product label in the USA has a recomendad amount of water to use. Things like fungicides are a contact killer so you need the whole plant wetted. Things like Roundup that translocate thru out the plant not much water is needed. Most weed killers that translocate 5 to 20 gal per acre will work. In my locale because of permanente crops of trees and vines I am mandated to use a tip putting out 10 to 20 gal per acre, depending on my ground speed to reduce drift of fine particles.

Unless you only use one chemical every year you need to adjust you sprayer. To do a good job you need to check calibration of the sprayer more often than most of us want to.

 

[broadriverhay]

I have a 525 gallon spray tank and I spray 20 gallons per acre. This rate has always worked good for me either with pre emergent herbicides , glyphosate or pesticides.

 

[SwingOak]

I did the math a long time ago, calculated the flow rates through my preferred low-drift nozzle, coverage of the sprayer booms, ground speed, etc. and basically it works out to 2.5 gallons of 2,4-D per 200 gallons of water, which is enough to get coverage per label rates of 25 gallons/acre (for hard to control weeds) on 8 acres with a coverage rate of 10 acres/hr. Generally though, I apply at 20 gal/acre and don't stress about the few plants - usually MIlkweed - that don't die off completely.