This year’s Crops and Technology will have over 40 stands in the exhibitor arena and over the course of the day, 18 sprayers will demonstrate their technology on a specially built track through some spring barley.

There will be three machinery demonstrations throughout the day, each lasting about one and a half hours.

Spraying technology will be the focus of the first part of the demo, while potato desiccation with technologies that could help with weed issues on cereal farms will be the final focus of the demo.

Ten sprayers will run in each demonstration from basic to spot spraying weeds in a green crop. In total, 18 sprayers will run throughout the day.

Teagasc researcher Dermot Forristal, Irish Farmers Journal machinery specialist Gary Abbott and tillage editor Siobhán Walsh will guide attendees through the different technologies and how they can help your farm and what might suit your farm.

High-yielding crops

In Ireland, we can produce high-yielding crops. However, with these high yields comes disease pressure and also a good environment for weeds to grow.

As a result, tillage farmers spray fungicides to control disease and herbicides to control weeds. Insecticides may also be used, as well as growth regulators, nutrition and liquid fertilisers can be applied with sprayers.

Grassland farmers use sprayers to apply herbicides, liquid fertilisers and sometimes nutrition and bio-stimulants.

These products can aid with crop production, but must be applied safely and correctly to protect human health, keep our water quality safe, to avoid drift on to other crops, to lower risks to the environment and ultimately use less pesticides.

These products can aid with crop production, but must be applied safely

Aside from all of these things, plant protection products can be costly, so applying them efficiently can reduce costs.

Technology has advanced massively over the years. The introduction of the induction hopper made it easier to put chemicals into the tank and now some sprayers can actually spot spray a weed in a field and dramatically reduce the amount of spray used and the time it takes to spray crops.

On display

At Crops and Technology, we want to cater for all farmers. So, the first sprayer that we will display is the most basic sprayer you can apply for under the TAMS grant with electronic control and rate control. This sprayer’s sections can be turned off with switches in the cab.

Crops and Technology launch at Oakpark. \ Claire Nash

We will then move to mid-range. These sprayers will be GPS-automated and have automatic section control, so will turn on and cut off accurately on headlands and shut off sections where there are overlaps.

The high-end sprayers will display GPS automation, but will have individual nozzle control and so can shut off nozzles one by one in a field corner or at an angle.

Automatic shutoff with GPS can result in significant savings with product, as there are no overlaps anywhere in the field with individual nozzle shutoff.

Before we move on to extremely high tech, we will then talk through a retrofitted sprayer. A Case IH GEM 2200TS sprayer will be on display and retrofitted with automatic shutoff technology. This shows you can upgrade your current sprayer with all of this new technology.

Spot spraying will be described during the demo.

The next sprayers on display will have green on brown technology. This technology allows you to spot spray green weeds in a stubble field and can cut down dramatically on the amount of spray being used.

A drone flies over a crop, maps the weeds and this map is inputted into the sprayer to allow the sprayer to spray only where the weeds are.

The weed is targeted and a buffer is sprayed around the weed to make sure it is controlled. Amazone’s Cultiwise system has reported an example of spot spraying resulting in just 8ha out of 37ha being sprayed with the system, resulting in significant savings.

However, it should be noted a certain amount of scale is needed for these systems to make the system stand up economically.

The final sprayer to travel in the demo will be fitted with technology which allows it to spray green on green.

At present, this is set up to spray docks in a grass field. It is getting into very high tech equipment, but gives us all an idea where technology is going and what it can do.

You will be able to chat to all the machinery suppliers at their stands on the day to find out more about the technology and machines.

Safety

Spraying can be dangerous and present hazards. Teagasc will have its health and safety team on hand in the exhibition arena to answer any questions you may have and to provide advice on personal protective equipment (PPE) and handling of pesticides.

Sprayers on display

Basic model

Hardi Master 1000 litre 12m boom sprayer.

Mid-range

Hardi Master mounted.

Berthoud Heracles mounted 24m.

Horsch 4AX trailed 24m.

Landquip 30m (awaiting model confirmation).

Hardi Mega Pro Force trailed.

Kverneland Ixter B18 mounted.

Amazone UF2002 + 1500FT mounted 24m.

Retrofitted sprayer

Clever Agri.

High-end

John Deere R740i trailed.

Bateman Self-propelled 36m.

Mazzotti (JD) self-propelled 24m.

Horsch Leeb 5LT 30m.

Horsch Self-propelled 30m.

Green-on-brown spraying

Amazone UX4201 trailed 24m.

Hardi Aeon 24m.

Kverneland T4 trailed.

Green-on-green spraying

Skai 15m.

Machinery demonstration times

  • 12pm.
  • 2pm.
  • 3.40pm.

    • Info

    For all the information on the machines that will be on display at Crops and Technology check out the machinery pages of this week’s paper.

    You can see the full list of exhibitors on the map for the event on page 43.