Alpego eyes electric power harrow
Distributed by OriginAg in New Zealand, Italian manufacturer Alpego recently showed its three metre Alysium electric power harrow at the Italian Eima Event, taking away an innovation award.
Bharat Bhana – from Hira Bhana & Co. Ltd in Pukekohe, a pioneer of this technology in New Zealand – has achieved some remarkable results. With improved drift control, the commercial grower has seen a 23% increase in coverage, a 35% reduction in water use, as well as improving spraying productivity by a third.
Often droplets delivered by conventional sprayers are either too small or too large. In the case of the former, they float for longer and can evaporate or drift away from the target.
By contrast, droplets that are too large, hit the plant at a higher speed, so are prone to bounce, shatter, and run-off, reducing retention on the leaf and the chemical’s overall performance.
MagrowTec, a set-and-forget hardware system that can be retro-fitted to any sprayer configuration, uses magnetic assistance to create more optimum-sized spray droplets during spraying. It also has sufficient momentum to overcome drift and get down into the plant canopy but is also small enough to stay on the plant surface upon impact.
Hira Bhana & Co. Ltd ran a side-by-side study with a conventional sprayer and noticed a significant reduction in drift and better coverage shown on the water-reactive paper used in the study.
The company was also able to reduce their water usage from 400 litres per hectare to 260 litres per hectare.
“We are getting less drift, which means there’s more spray going down onto the plant, where it should be,” explains Bharat Bhana, owner of Hira Bhana.
“We also achieved a lower water rate, meaning at the end of the day, we’ve got a lot more work done. It would normally take some two days to spray 200 hectares of onions, which we’ve now cut to a day and a half.
“We’ve also saved some fuel and spray chemical, we’ve got less drift and saved some water, so that must be good for the environment.”
The system is distributed by Vantage New Zealand, and director Jemma Mulvihill says they are thrilled by the results of this field study.
“MagrowTec’ s technology has allowed our client to increase their productivity and profitability, by using the latest innovation and technology to meet the challenges of modern agriculture.”
