Each year growers spend, on average, around $120 per acre on pesticides. It’s not uncommon for a portion of those applications to fail or perform below growers’ expectations. There are a variety of reasons for this, including herbicide resistance, adverse weather and application issues. One additional cause that is often overlooked is water quality.
Water is the main carrier for pesticide applications, and if there are issues with the water quality, it can have a negative effect on the efficacy of those applications. Some of the water quality issues that can have an impact on efficacy include hardness, iron, carbonates, bicarbonates, pH levels, sodium and Total Dissolved Solids. The question is: What can we do about it?
Water samples can be hard to interpret, and many don’t simplify the key takeaways or offer solutions. That’s where Helena’s AquaLenz® comes in. AquaLenz is an advanced water analysis system that provides customized results to growers.
"The whole idea of AquaLenz was to develop a report that takes all of the information from the lab and puts it into a very easy-to-understand format; it’s as simple as that."
— Paul Crout, AGRIntelligence-Agronomy-Organics Manager
The AquaLenz report incorporates a color-coded status for each of the key areas of testing, allowing growers to quickly see at first glance, which factors fall below the approved threshold and need to be addressed. The thresholds are set up based on industry standards and university data that has determined the critical values of each of these key components of the water quality test. Crout says it’s been a big hit with growers in his geography. “Growers are looking at dozens of reports all the time, columns of numbers, all of those things, and what growers really care about is what’s going to affect me, what’s going to negatively affect my crop or my farm.” The AquaLenz report keeps it simple and easy to quickly identify the issues that need to be addressed.
Customized reports can be generated for growers whether they have irrigated acres or are using spray application through AquaLenz Spray and AquaLenz Irrigation. The two reports both have a similar structure with a color-coded status, critical values and recommended solutions. Additionally, the irrigation report provides a more in-depth data analysis of potential problem areas specifically affecting irrigation, shows a nitrogen budget compliance reference and also includes tracking over time so you can see how quality is impacted during different times of the year.
The Helena Product solutions included in the report vary geographically based on the water conditioners that work best in each local area. The Helena Sales Representative or AGRIntelligence Specialist can sit down and go through the report with growers to discuss these recommendations and decide on the best course of action to correct any waterquality issues that come up through the report.
"From a sustainability and economic standpoint, water is a an extremely valuable resource that can be overlooked. Spray water impacts virtually all Ag Chem applications because everything that we spray on that field is mixed with water, so making sure that that water is the best quality to make sure we get the most out of the money that we're spending on Ag Chem products is very important. Irrigation water use efficiency and supply is something that's going to become more important every day. AquaLenz shows our commitment to sustainability and helping our growers be as efficient as possible."
Derek Emerine, National Agronomist for Helena
Contact your local Helena representative to try AquaLenz services on your farm this season.