Dicamba Training: Calibration

Greg Kruger Author

11/30/2018 Added

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Increasing concerns about off-target dicamba drift has led to increasingly specific product and equipment handling, application and cleanup. This video describes how to properly calibrate equipment to avoid off-target dicamba movement.

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[00:00:00.082](gentle cheerful music)
[00:00:08.562]Hi, I'm Greg Kreuger,
[00:00:10.240]Pesticide Application Technology Specialist
[00:00:12.360]and Weed Scientist at the University of Nebraska,
[00:00:14.771]Lincoln's West Central Research and Extension Center,
[00:00:17.020]in North Platte.
[00:00:18.220]Today, I'm gonna talk to you a little bit
[00:00:19.720]about calibrating sprayers.
[00:00:22.360]If you want, you can always find our
[00:00:25.130]easy to find NebGuide on fine tuning a sprayer
[00:00:29.240]with the Ounce Calibration Method.
[00:00:31.550]What we're gonna talk about today
[00:00:32.700]will be a little bit more detailed than that,
[00:00:34.640]but this is always an easy way
[00:00:36.570]to get the sprayer calibrated correctly.
[00:00:40.240]The principles and concepts we're gonna talk about today
[00:00:42.480]are gonna fall in line with what you find in that guide,
[00:00:44.670]but there's a couple quick and dirty cheats
[00:00:47.360]that you can find in there to get it done even quicker
[00:00:49.730]with less calculations and less math.
[00:00:52.840]But, when we talk about calibrating a sprayer,
[00:00:56.840]the first step is really gonna be making sure
[00:00:58.800]that we've got the right equipment.
[00:01:00.540]Here in front of me,
[00:01:01.373]you can see really the tools that we need.
[00:01:03.430]We've got a tape measure,
[00:01:05.130]we've got our safety gear with our lab coat,
[00:01:08.140]a face shield,
[00:01:09.463]glasses, and gloves.
[00:01:11.980]So, we'll always wanna make sure that we've got the
[00:01:14.590]appropriate PPE when we're doing these.
[00:01:17.600]Always wanna make sure that safety is the first priority
[00:01:20.490]in calibrating your sprayer.
[00:01:22.330]The first step in calibrating that sprayer
[00:01:24.480]is making sure that we have the proper equations.
[00:01:27.240]Today, we're gonna use the GPA Method.
[00:01:31.000]Simply what that is is GPA, our gallons per acre,
[00:01:35.120]is going to equal 5,940
[00:01:37.920]times the gallons per minute.
[00:01:39.340]So, that means were gonna need to know
[00:01:40.520]what the flow rate is of those nozzles
[00:01:42.950]times the, or divided by the miles per hour
[00:01:46.010]times the width of the nozzle spacing.
[00:01:48.310]So, at this point, let's talk about
[00:01:50.920]how we start to get some of those
[00:01:52.740]missing pieces of those, that equation.
[00:01:55.900]Now, the first step,
[00:01:57.080]we're gonna need just a simple tape measure.
[00:01:58.950]I know many of you probably already have this.
[00:02:01.690]A hint that this nozzle spacing down pat,
[00:02:05.370]but just in case you don't,
[00:02:07.580]grab a take measure on your sprayer.
[00:02:10.250]We're gonna measure the nozzle spacing
[00:02:12.160]from the center of one nozzle to the center of the next.
[00:02:15.220]So, here, you can see we've got a 20 inch nozzle spacing
[00:02:18.170]setup on this sprayer.
[00:02:20.056]When we go back to our formula,
[00:02:21.860]now that we know we've got the 20 inch nozzle spacing,
[00:02:24.490]that is just gonna get plugged in for the width
[00:02:28.350]on our equation.
[00:02:29.290]So, that, we've got that one first missing piece
[00:02:32.850]to fill out that equation.
[00:02:34.640]The next step is really gonna be to calc--
[00:02:37.010]Or capture a flow rate.
[00:02:40.050]Today, we've got two different things here
[00:02:42.170]to help us do that.
[00:02:43.650]We've got a simple measuring tube.
[00:02:46.320]It's got ounces on one side, milliliters on the other.
[00:02:48.980]If we want to, we can make calculations
[00:02:51.730]from milliliters, but it's gonna require a conversion
[00:02:54.500]or we can simply just use the ounces side
[00:02:57.030]of the measuring cup.
[00:02:58.890]If you're lazy like me, you're gonna have
[00:03:01.480]a tool like this laying around.
[00:03:02.790]This is a spot on.
[00:03:04.650]This is just a simple tool that we can use
[00:03:06.590]to capture flow rate and it's gonna tell us
[00:03:08.290]the exact gallons per minute doing all the calculations
[00:03:12.040]and conversions for us.
[00:03:14.250]Works simply off of two anodes on the back
[00:03:16.863]or inside that cylinder.
[00:03:18.950]When the water, or spray solution hits that first one,
[00:03:22.530]it starts the timer.
[00:03:24.060]When it hits the second one, it stops the timer
[00:03:26.030]and it automatically has a little computer
[00:03:28.600]built inside that's gonna make that conversion for us.
[00:03:32.080]So, at this point, though, if we've got our measuring tube,
[00:03:35.910]we're gonna need our stopwatch,
[00:03:37.320]and we'll capture the spray coming out,
[00:03:41.670]and then, we'll add that to our equation.
[00:03:45.054](gentle cheerful music)
[00:03:50.230]Alright, now that we're ready to make that first capture,
[00:03:53.670]you can see we've had to get our appropriate PPE on.
[00:03:57.830]Today, we're using water, so I'm just using a lab coat,
[00:04:01.174]gloves, and glasses.
[00:04:02.470]Keep in mind that depending on what we're spraying,
[00:04:05.580]you may need further PPE such as respirators,
[00:04:09.120]full type X suits, or even a face shield
[00:04:12.500]or something like that.
[00:04:13.340]So, just keep in mind that whatever
[00:04:15.050]we're working with, though, we need to follow
[00:04:16.520]that appropriate PPE when we do these captures.
[00:04:19.300]This is gonna be the part where we have the most
[00:04:21.940]exposure to that pesticide, so.
[00:04:24.900]Once we got our full PPE on, we're gonna take
[00:04:28.500]our measuring cup.
[00:04:30.360]We're gonna collect the spray coming out of that nozzle
[00:04:34.920]and try to capture that.
[00:04:36.600]Today, we're gonna do that for 30 seconds.
[00:04:38.910]We'll multiply it by two to get how many
[00:04:41.980]ounces per minute we've got
[00:04:43.910]and then we'll convert that to gallons.
[00:04:46.370]Again, if we've got the spot on,
[00:04:47.920]we'll demonstrate that second.
[00:04:50.240]You'll see exactly how we get
[00:04:52.030]the calculations there as well.
[00:04:54.160]Alright, now that we've made our captures,
[00:04:55.700]we can actually see if we've got this thing calibrated
[00:04:57.810]in the way we expect.
[00:04:59.110]So, with this particular setup,
[00:05:01.470]we've got O4 nozzles on there.
[00:05:04.280]We were running at 40 psi, so we were expecting
[00:05:07.502]four tenths of a gallon per minute.
[00:05:09.940]As you can see on the spot on,
[00:05:11.480]it's telling us that we are .42 gallons per minute
[00:05:15.560]off of that one capture we just did.
[00:05:17.890]What I'd truly like to see is
[00:05:19.850]we would do multiple captures down across the boom.
[00:05:22.470]And in an absolute perfect situation,
[00:05:24.990]we would capture from every single nozzle coming out.
[00:05:27.080]But, we are within five percent of the
[00:05:30.270]expected flow rate here, so we would consider this
[00:05:34.310]a good capture and a good setup.
[00:05:36.970]So, when we're looking at our capture
[00:05:38.880]in our tube or in our cups, here we got 26 ounces.
[00:05:43.990]To get the ounces per minute,
[00:05:45.910]I'm gonna multiply it by two
[00:05:47.300]'cause we did a 30 second capture.
[00:05:49.340]So, the first step we're gonna calculate
[00:05:51.980]is the ounces per minute.
[00:05:53.770]We get 52 ounces.
[00:05:55.440]We're gonna divide that by 128 ounces
[00:05:58.200]because there's 128 fluid ounces in one gallon.
[00:06:03.000]So, again, we're trying to get down
[00:06:04.490]to gallons per minute.
[00:06:06.210]We've already got to minutes by multiplying by two
[00:06:08.870]and we're now gonna divide by 128 ounces
[00:06:11.720]to get ounces to gallons.
[00:06:13.900]Now, when we start looking at this,
[00:06:16.540]we gotta ask ourselves if we aren't
[00:06:18.250]within that expected range, what should we do?
[00:06:21.090]And that's where we start to do some diagnostics,
[00:06:23.810]tracking, and potentially even changing our sprayer
[00:06:26.670]or sprayer setup.
[00:06:27.930]So, the first thing we always wanna look at
[00:06:29.717]is the nozzle.
[00:06:31.040]So, if we take the nozzle off of the sprayer,
[00:06:33.700]and if we're not getting the right flow rate,
[00:06:36.020]a lot of times, it's due to a worn nozzle.
[00:06:39.460]So, when we get a brand new nozzle,
[00:06:42.170]we're gonna expect that to be within five percent
[00:06:44.350]of the expected flow rate range
[00:06:46.910]and, throughout the life of that nozzle,
[00:06:49.190]as long as we're within that five percent range
[00:06:51.270]of the expected flow rate, we're gonna consider
[00:06:53.460]this nozzle still good to use.
[00:06:55.320]When we start getting flow rates that are higher
[00:06:57.620]than five percent of that expected,
[00:07:00.330]it's time to take that nozzle off and replace it.
[00:07:02.630]So, first stop on any system is gonna be
[00:07:06.710]that nozzle and making sure that nozzle's
[00:07:09.775]still good to use.
[00:07:13.078](cheerful music)
[00:07:17.860]The last part of the equation that we haven't addressed yet
[00:07:20.730]is really around the application speed.
[00:07:23.060]So, while some tractors would have a speedometer in it,
[00:07:27.270]others don't.
[00:07:28.103]And so, it's really important to make sure we've got
[00:07:31.090]the speed and, also, even if we do have a speedometer,
[00:07:34.080]that speedometer's working correctly,
[00:07:37.390]if we have just a little bit of air there,
[00:07:39.650]it could significantly throw off our calibration equations.
[00:07:42.700]So, we wanna check the speed,
[00:07:45.220]whether we do or don't have a speedometer.
[00:07:47.620]The way we're gonna do that is measure off a distance
[00:07:49.960]and then calculate the miles per hour.
[00:07:53.610]Again, using the ounce calibration method,
[00:07:56.110]if we wanna take a little bit of a shortcut,
[00:07:57.830]we can use the Table One in that table,
[00:08:00.620]which is what we did today.
[00:08:01.620]We measured off 204 feet and
[00:08:05.780]we're gonna expect a four mile an hour application today.
[00:08:09.080]So that means, looking at that table,
[00:08:10.850]we're gonna need 34.8 seconds.
[00:08:13.200]So, now that we're, we've got our flags measured off,
[00:08:19.240]you can see we've got a drive line.
[00:08:21.450]We're gonna drive between that and measure the time,
[00:08:24.320]making sure that our four mile per hour is correct.
[00:08:27.100]Again, solving this equation,
[00:08:29.040]putting everything together here at the end,
[00:08:31.250]we have an O4 nozzle.
[00:08:32.810]We're getting four tenths of a gallon per minute
[00:08:34.620]out of that nozzle.
[00:08:36.310]We've got a four mile an hour application speed
[00:08:38.600]and a 20 inch nozzle spacing.
[00:08:40.730]When we plug those pieces into the equation,
[00:08:43.330]you can see that we would expect
[00:08:44.630]30 gallons per acre in this application.
[00:08:47.730]Now, for some applications, 30 gallon per acre
[00:08:50.700]is gonna be necessary.
[00:08:52.310]In a lot of row crop applications,
[00:08:54.693]it's gonna be much higher than expected.
[00:08:57.800]We would need to either adjust the nozzle pressure
[00:09:00.380]or ground speed to get the GPA that we want.
[00:09:05.020]Keeping in mind that it's really important
[00:09:06.710]that we follow any kinda label restrictions
[00:09:08.610]in terms of GPA.
[00:09:11.050]So, most of our labels are gonna specify at least a minimum.
[00:09:14.930]In some cases, they have even a maximum GPA,
[00:09:17.410]so consult that label for the product you're using.
[00:09:21.610]Alright, now that we've walked through the equation,
[00:09:23.800]we know how to calibrate the sprayer,
[00:09:25.500]it's really important to understand
[00:09:26.890]when and where to calibrate and so,
[00:09:30.390]the last thing we wanna talk about is
[00:09:32.040]how often we should be calibrating the sprayer.
[00:09:34.780]Any time that we change something
[00:09:36.380]with our sprayer setup, whether that be
[00:09:37.840]the nozzle, the pressure that we're operating at,
[00:09:41.110]or the tank solution that we're using,
[00:09:42.830]it's time to go back and recalibrate that sprayer.
[00:09:45.370]Make sure that everything's working as we expect.
[00:09:48.100]This becomes really important as we move
[00:09:50.990]into a situation where we wanna do the best job possible.
[00:09:55.040]In every application, calibration is the first step.
[00:09:58.860]And so, we wanna make sure that sprayer is calibrated
[00:10:02.210]as well as possible so that we improve
[00:10:04.640]efficiency, save time, save money,
[00:10:08.160]and increase that application efficiency
[00:10:10.640]in terms of the control we get out of it.
[00:10:12.620]Just to sum things up again,
[00:10:15.920]I would refer you back to the NebGuide G1756.
[00:10:21.070]The One Ounce Calibration Method
[00:10:23.190]for applications is gonna have all the missing details
[00:10:26.280]that we didn't have time to cover today in there
[00:10:29.060]will help you make that application
[00:10:30.600]and there's even a few shortcuts in there
[00:10:32.350]that'll make the process a little bit quicker
[00:10:34.210]and a little less painful.
[00:10:36.150]So, good luck calibrating your sprayers this coming season.
[00:10:40.116](cheerful music)

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Dicamba Training: Calibration

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