Strippers
This is a topic I have been reluctant to write about as I have not wanted to hurt anyone’s feelings. However, I would not be serving the public well if I did not address this reoccurring issue in the county.
Most of us know at least one stripper- I would be surprised if you did not know several as they are abundant. Many of us get a real kick out of seeing their handiwork, the nextdoor neighbor stripper is often discussed whenever two or more farmers get together.
Let’s see if we can find the root cause for so many strippers in the area and why they might be falling into this entertaining category.
We have many varieties of strippers in the county. The most obvious and fun to judge are usually herbicide and fertilizer strippers, but you can also often see their results in hay fields and of course crops.
Most of the time the strippers are doing their best but may lack the proper equipment to prevent the occasional strip in the field. It can be very difficult to keep a good line and see where your last pass was in a cut down field of bermudagrass.
Trying to line up using t-post, trees, cows, and any other somewhat permanent fixture at the end of the field can be very difficult. I can assure you it is almost impossible to see and line up against your last pass in most pasture and hay field applications.
These are probably the most common reasons we see strips in local fields, and it is understandable. The problem is you are over and under applying either fertilizer or herbicide and if you cover very many acres it is really going to make a difference in your grass quality and economic effectiveness.
If you are only spraying or fertilizing 20 acres or so, you can probably make do by just knowing the field and the spacings through simple repetitiveness. If you have multiple fields and many acres it is impossible not to leave strips.
What can you do to stop this embarrassing and potentially costly problem? There are a couple of options- soap markers and GPS systems. The old standby soap/foam markers were used for decades, mostly by commercial applicators. GPS systems are the newest technology but are not really new anymore, we see GPS everywhere. A quick google search shows the soap or foam markers available at prices ranging from $600.00 to $1,200.00.
While there are some very expensive and technical GPS systems, there are several basic GPS models that would be very suitable for pastures and hay fields. T-Jet, Raven, and Trimble are 3 companies that I know carry them and they seem to cost in the $2,000.00 range. GPS guidance with consistent pass-to-pass accuracy results in fewer skips and overlaps that lowers seed, fertilizer, chemical, and fuel costs as well as helps save time when spraying or fertilizing pastures and hayfields. When calves are $.80 that might not be something to consider, but with the good markets we are experiencing now and the cost of chemical and fertilizer, it might be wise to look at this as a good investment that should make you much more efficient for many years.
Of course everyone has seen the handy work of a stripper, there are usually long strips of weeds in an otherwise clean field. If fertilizer was spread, there would usually be very dark green areas of over application followed by light green short grass. Often when planting small grains, you will have void areas that were missed at seeding time and some areas that were overseeded and are extra thick. There is one time when strips are intentionally left, especially in row crop country. You will be riding down the road and see several rows left in the field, while the rest has been harvested. It looks strange, but it is there to help crop insurance adjusters establish yield and yield losses for the field. This is usually only seen during times when there is a natural disaster, drought, hail, etc.… Occasionally, I just like to see if anyone is reading the article.