I had the pleasure of chatting with a lot of different growers at the recent cotton conference and one of the interesting things for me was to hear how every cotton growing operation works just a bit differently than the next. Not coming from a (cotton) farming background myself, I find it fascinating to see how everyone tackles the same challenge (growing cotton) in their own way in order to optimise results. Something that almost every cotton grower mentioned to me however, is that they’re constantly working on pushing their profitability margins and thinking about where they can gain the ‘next 1%’ in their business.
With the sheer size and diversity of most cotton growing operations it isn’t always easy to identify what to focus on next, but a lot of growers mentioned to me that crop inputs, and especially chemicals, are one of the areas they’re working on. With growers spending a significant amount of money on chemicals each year, making sure that every single one of those dollars gets used as effectively as possible, is crucial of course. I think we’re starting to see the ‘spray drift’ conversation slowly move towards a ‘spray efficacy’ conversation, where we’re not just worried about spray drift anymore (although it is no less important!) but are increasingly focused on the financial side of not spraying in the right conditions by potentially missing or under-dosing target pests and/or weeds.
With INCYT’s Maverick Spray Advisory, our aim is to help inform this process and give growers or spray rig operators a very accurate view of what the local conditions are and whether they should be spraying or not. Over the past 24 months we’ve been able to put a lot of our development resources into Maverick, thanks in part to the BRII funding we received through the CRDC. Being a 100% Australian company with over 40 engineers based right here in Sydney means that we were able to get stuck into this challenge immediately and deliver results for Australian Cotton Growers rapidly.
While Maverick Spray Advisory is available to every grower already, based on BOM weather data, those growers that choose to have their own weather station and inversion tower located on their farm have access to hyper-local data that shows them exactly what’s happening on their farm. With Maverick, growers have access to a dynamic spray forecast system which lets them know when they’re able to spray in the next week, as well as showing a traffic light for the current conditions; and if these conditions suddenly change, the operator will receive alerts.
What this means for growers is that they are able to better plan their spraying activity around weather conditions and make sure that they perform an application at the most ideal time. This allows for the chemical applied to be as effective as possible, while minimising the risk of off-target spray drift. Whether they’re applying a herbicide, insecticide, growth regulator or defoliant, increased spray efficacy is an important step towards the next 1% in many instances.
I recently spoke with Craig Day, Spray Safe & Save, who has been providing spray application training throughout the cotton regions, and he confirmed that it’s not just off-target spray drift but more spray efficacy in general that is becoming increasingly important to growers and applicators: “Growers obviously need to be safe and want to save as much on their chemical bill as possible, but performing applications in a way that increases efficacy and therefore optimises the agronomic performance is becoming a lot more important to most growers. With chemicals forming an important portion of the total crop input costs, and total crop margins constantly getting thinner, looking for the next 1% through optimising chemical applications is a must.”
And the best part about Maverick is that we aren’t nearly finished with the engineering and development yet! Future releases will involve a simple yet comprehensive framework for spray planning with dynamic risk forecasting based on the details of the spray plan, and an active monitoring component that measures the performance of the spray session from both a drift and spray efficacy perspective. As we continue with the development our goal is to develop a tool that growers can rely on with embedded up to date chemical label data, clear risk signalling and simple clear reporting, ultimately leading to better spray results.
“It’s exciting to see where Maverick is now, but it’s even more exciting to think where Maverick will be in the coming years as we create and release more features and options!
This article was first published in the Australian Cotton Year Book, 2024 edition.
