BURDEKIN cane farmers can reduce their herbicide usage while maintaining effective weed control in their paddocks by using a revolutionary custom-designed, north Queensland-made six row sprayer.
The Department of Agriculture and Fisheries’ Reef Plan team designed the Dual Herbicide Sprayer as a solution to more effectively delivering non-residual herbicides – saving time, money and reducing herbicide run-off into waterways.
After 18 months of successful use in cane farms in the Innisfail and Tully growing areas, an improved prototype has now been made available to growers to trial free of charge in the Burdekin region.
Funding for the dual spray rig has been made available as part of the Queensland and Australian Governments’ commitment to improving water quality to the Great Barrier Reef.
DAF extension officer Brock Dembowski said the sprayer was developed by DAF in response to cane farmers’ requests for a spray system that could apply glyphosate (commercially known as Round-up) and other non-residual herbicides to the inter row, and also pre-emergent herbicides to the row instead of the usual blanket application of more expensive cane herbicides across the whole paddock.
“The sprayer is able to deliver herbicide at 1.5 metre, 1.6 metre and 1.8 metre row spacings – meaning it can operate in standard and the wider row spacings of controlled traffic farming systems,” he said.
“The dual herbicide sprayer is a non-shielded, banded sprayer that is particularly useful for controlling difficult weeds that occur in the inter row. It can lower production costs by reducing the amount of newer, more expensive, pre-emergent herbicides required to effectively control weeds.”
DAF Reef Plan staff are encouraging Burdekin cane farmers to take the rig to their farms and give it a try.
“We are really keen for Burdekin farmers to let us know how it operates under local conditions,” Mr Dembowski said.
The dual herbicide spray rig can be collected from the SRA farm off Sayers Road.
