Several cotton farmers in the New South Wales Central Coast have reported off-target spray drift damage, with one farmer projecting more than half a million dollars in crop yield losses this season.
The latest development follows recent warnings that off-target spray drift in Australia could be high this season amid an explosion of weeds after significant rainfall.
Most of Australia’s 1,500 cotton growers remain safe from spray drift, Cotton Australia reported, but there were a few reports of it happening in the Macquarie Valley and the Lachlan Valley with minor to moderate damage in the Murray and Murrumbidgee.
In one farming area near Narromine in the NSW Central West, there have been several reports of damage with one cotton grower reporting that 130 hectares of his cotton crop sustained substantial off-target spray damage, with little hope that the crop could be salvaged.
Farmer Andrew Gill, who reported the incident to Cotton Australia’s Snap, Send, Solve reporting platform, believes the damage has been caused by the off-target spraying of a phenoxy herbicide which was applied before Christmas.
“I won’t know the real extent until the plant metabolises the chemical out of its system but with the damage impacting at least six nodes, it represents a big loss,” Gill said. “I’m angry and what makes it worse is that we will never know where it came from.”
Cotton Australia policy advisor Doug McCollum said the damage is disappointing but overall, the lack of substantial damage across the cotton growing regions indicate most people are doing the right thing.
“It is encouraging that most people are spraying according to the label and using best-practice spraying techniques,” McCollum said.
“Everyone who applies agricultural chemicals must be qualified to do so, and it is critical that they have their equipment set up correctly and that they only spray when conditions are right. The cotton industry has been running extensive education and awareness campaigns in recent years, and we know that the majority of farmers are doing a great job as a result.
“Unfortunately though, we still see these cases of severe damage, and the positive result across the rest of the industry is cold comfort for those growers that are suffering significant damage to their crops.”
McCollum said often the fault is not with the professional applicators and contractors whose job it is to apply agricultural products on the ground or in aerial applications.
“It can take just take one individual, spraying without due consideration of the weather patterns, the potential for inversion layers, or the correct selection of spray equipment, to destroy nearby crops, with cotton particularly sensitive to a range of herbicides.”
Gill believes spray drift impacts on all in agriculture, with a united approach needed to solve the problem.
“I’m hosting a meeting on my farm so every stakeholder from agronomists, farmers, suppliers and contractors can see the damage on my property first-hand, and discuss how collectively and individually we can stop this happening again,” Gill said.
Cotton Australia urges farmers to map their activities on SataCrop - a mapping tool informing all stakeholders of the location of potentially sensitive crops, and use WAND towers, a tool that can quickly detect hazardous conditions and inversions, enabling growers and spray contractors to spray according to the best conditions and in compliance with label requirements.