Managing spray drift

Steven Field, Statewide Specialist Chemicals

Spray drift has long been an issue that chemical users have grappled with.

It can have a big impact on people in your local community, damaging crops and pastures, and even polluting waterways.

Now the use of chemicals in agriculture is a legitimate activity but there’s no escaping that their use is under increasing scrutiny by the general public.

By minimising spray drift farmers will save money, protect their assets but perhaps most importantly not damage the livelihood of farmers in their local communities.

In this short video we’re hearing from farmers who understand both sides of the issue, and we hope their stories help you to think carefully about spray drift.

Ian Rathjen, Whistling Eagle Vineyard

We run a mixed farm, we’re a fairly substantial vineyard, over 100 acres of vineyard, we run a sheep and also cropping enterprise.

I’ve been farming since I left school at 17 and I’m 61 now so that’s more than I care to count.

Look in terms of spray drift we’ve had several events here, some of them small events you’ve just noticed at the end of the season a few curly leaves.

But we had one major event back in 2012, that was the year that there was a lot of events, lot of single events along the range here, and it was a year that we lost quite a lot of growth out of that year.

The main thing that concerns me is residue left in fruit and the ramifications of wineries being rejecting fruit and the trickle back effect it will take and the cost to them and the cost to me.

The drift that occurred in 2012 we believe travelled about three to four kilometres and it was just one of those summer drifts.

We think we know the source of it, we didn’t do anything to prosecute and I do believe people have the right to farm, so being a farmer myself I’d hate to prosecute somebody then actually have an accident one day myself.

One of the other concerns I have, and it’s a concern from my point of view too being a farmer, like, you know, the last thing I want to do is cause a drift to go to somebody else’s, and I’m using sprays all the time at the vineyard here for fungicides and one thing and another, and I’d hate to see there being a ramification from that going to other farmers as well as my neighbours.

So I’m really conscious of just how we manage our spray programs here in the vineyard as well.

If you have a conscience, then you’ll probably be concerned about spray drift if it’s your causing it or if it’s come from somewhere else.

Look, the last thing we want to do in this world is upset our neighbours and my neighbours I’ve grown up with, I’ve spent a lot of time with them, it’s a very tight community around here and the last thing we want to do is be at one another’s displeasure when it comes to spray drift, so I’m very conscious of getting the message out there to people so that these events don’t happen and we don’t have those unpleasant factors.

I don’t think the neighbours around here are vindictive or vicious in any way.

Sheila McClure, Barangaroo Boutique Wines

My name is Sheila and we own Barangaroo Boutique Wines just out of Horsham in Victoria, and we run a vineyard.

We’ve had ups and downs with droughts, locusts, floods down the hill, and spray drift so it’s been a challenge with everything.

We did suffer some spray drift back in November 2017.

We weren’t sure what it really was, we just noticed a lot of our leaves were strange and we happened to have our brother-in-law down that particular weekend and we showed him, and he said it was caused from spray drift.

So he advised us to contact the authorities which he had a contact, so they come up in their biosecurity gear, took a lot of samples off the vineyard to take back to do testing, and did find it was caused by spray drift.

We did incur extra cost with the chemicals that we had to use, plus we did lose about three tonne of grapes which is quite a bit of income to us as we are a very small vineyard.

They’re very good around here, our neighbours when they do go to spray they do come and notify us what they’re using, and it’s usually not anything dangerous for our vines.

Especially when you live in a cropping area like we do, and there’s only two little vineyards in the middle of it, just the

fact that we spent so many years getting this vineyard up to where it was and then to find spray drift it’s very disheartening, and it does take a bit out of you.

Steven Field, Statewide Specialist Chemicals

So that’s how spray drift is causing headaches for some of our farmers and we hope their stories will leave an impression.

There’s a heap of top quality information out there about how to minimise spray drift, and even advanced sprayer training that people can attend.

Government and industry are working together to try and provide better information and tools to people to help them make informed decisions about when to spray.

It’s critical that the farmer in the paddock who understands the local conditions and has assessed the risks goes on to make good decisions.

The future of farming depends on it.