Spray drift complaints

A Grainews columnist wrote to say, "I have a friend having a lot of problems with irresponsible neighbours spraying chemicals that are drifting onto them.  Apparently one neighbour is even driving down the road with nozzles dripping and doesn't want to fix them because that way they don't freeze in the winter. He was wondering if there are people he can contact about it. Do you know?"

I didn't know, so I asked a friend with Manitoba Agriculture. He wrote: "Most farms and farmers carry insurance to cover drift situations. So he should speak to the farmer and mention that he thinks there may be some drift. The farmer may refer it to his insurance company and this progresses very easy. However, if the neighbour is a jerk, contact the local Manitoba ag office. An ag rep may come out and take some samples and send them to our lab. If they show a possible drift situation, then he will have more power to challenge this neighbour and request an insurance audit. If the neighbour is still a problem, he should contact the Manitoba Institute of Agrologists — get a certified agronomist — and discuss his options with that person and see where it goes from there. 

"As far as the sprayer leaking or opening the booms, unless it is causing physical damage there isn't too much to do about it. Keep in mind whatever is coming out of the booms has just been sprayed on 100s of acres in the area already."

I saw Stan Audette this week and asked him his advice on drift into yards. Stan is the communications manager with Dow AgroSciences. He noted that spray drift is usually only about 10 per cent of the actual rate applied on the crop. Humans and animals are not at risk from drift. Stan says that if it's an insecticide, which some farmers will be spraying this time of year, the insecticdes photodegrade within a couple of hot days.

So if the "friend" noted in the intro paragraph is worried about insecticide on a garden, drifted chemical will be at a very low rate and it won't be around long. Root vegetables will not get any at all. And for tomatoes and cucumbers, you can wait a couple of days then wash and eat them without harm.