Researchers against the wind

Piece Description

For many Midwesterners,wind is an occasional nuisance. For farmers, though, the wind's impact can be huge — drying out crops and eroding topsoil. Gusts big and small also complicate the application of chemicals, and that can be particularly costly. Reporting for Harvest Public Media, Perry Stoner takes us inside a new research facility in North Platte, Nebraska, where researchers are throwing their unique brand of caution to the wind.

Nat sound wind machine starting (04)

8 As an electric engine revs up, Greg Kruger, a Crop Systems Specialist with the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, explains the set up.

Greg Kruger
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We have an axial flow fan and that creates an air flow. Then we’ve got an air straightener. // Then we’ve got a laser system // and we’ve set up a single nozzle sprayer inside this four foot by four foot wind tunnel.

12 The sprayer sends water through the tunnel. Kruger and his team are trying out dozens of nozzles searching for the most efficient and effective chemical application methods. It starts with the droplet size coming out of the nozzle.

Greg Kruger p. 3
6:00-6:15 (15) We know that the smaller the droplet size, the greater the drift potential. The small droplets take longer to reach the ground. So anytime, we’ve got an air flow that’s pushing those droplets, if it takes longer to get to the ground, it’s gonna move farther from the point where it was released.

12 Chemicals are designed to keep crop diseases and pests in check. The researchers want to know how much pressure is ideal for application. More force usually means smaller droplet size.

Greg Kruger p. 3
6:48-7:07 (20) So there’s a sweet spot in there where we’re trying to hit so that we don’t have a lot of drift, but yet we’re still getting the control from that pesticide that we want.

20 Near the fan in the wind tunnel is a honeycomb shaped attachment which keeps the 15 mile per hour wind blowing as straight as possible. Each droplet sprayed in the tunnel is measured when it bends the light of the laser beam set up at the opposite end of the tunnel.

Greg Kruger p. 5
11:06-11:26 (20) We’re picking up about a tenth of a micron on that laser beam so about 14 hundred times smaller than what the diameter of a human hair is, is the size of the droplets that we’re picking up.

20 The research is right on target for Kevin Wemhoff. He owns Vantage Agri Service in Otoe County in southeast Nebraska. Applying liquid chemicals makes up a large part of the business, especially this time of year. It’s windy this time of year too, and chemical application directions don’t allow for much wind.

Kevin Wemhoff
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7 Technically by most labels, its 10 MPH, obviously there are many, many days in Nebraska that it’s over 10 MPH.

Nat sound sprayer

30 Wemhoff’s high crop sprayer looks like a large transformer toy as the boom unfolds to a span of 90 feet. On board sonar, which sends a signal to the ground to measure its distance, automatically adjusts the height of the boom for optimum efficiency. There are other options to counter the wind too. Drift-retarding additives can help weigh down chemicals to reduce drift and there are numerous types of nozzles to choose from to try to keep particle size larger. While technology and information have improved efficiency, Wemhoff says it’s still important to continue to get better.

Kevin Wemhoff
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19 With more acreages where we are relatively close to some urban areas, Lincoln, Omaha, some other places there are more …vineyards, there are more acreages, people that have moved out of town that you need to be more sensitive to.

Kevin Wemhoff
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8 You are always looking for more data, more information on how far particles move to give you the best idea of how to handle a field.

With nat sound BIG wind machine

12 That’s what Greg Kruger hopes will come from the research at the new wind tunnel facility in North Platte. In addition to the machine that blows at 15 MPH, a much larger machine can be attached. It creates winds up to 200 MPH to replicate aerial chemical spraying.

Greg Kruger p. 1
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We’ve got engineering meets physics meets biology….

15 After some initial testing, Kruger will put plants in the wind tunnel for further research. He hopes the work will help establish standards for drift reduction technology. DRT is something the Environmental Protection Agency is already focusing on.

Greg Kruger p. 8
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This DRT Policy will have labeling on products so that applicators, when they pick up a nozzle or they pick up a drift-reducing adjutant off the shelf, to use with their application, they’ll know that that product will have the ability to reduce drift.

7 The wind tunnel in North Platte is only the second of its kind in the U.S. For Harvest Public Media, I’m Perry Stoner.