When no-tillers hear John Obery talk about efficiency and performance, they listen carefully.

That’s because the Metamora, Ill., no-tiller not only has 2,800 no-till acres of his own, but also custom sprays another 30,000 acres every year.

Many of his worry-free no-till herbicide spraying ideas were covered on page 8 of the May 1998, issue of No-Till Farmer. Obery explained the value of using a spray adjuvant called Array to improve the consistency of herbicide performance and minimize spray drift under no-till conditions.

“This is one of the best-kept secrets on spray application in the spraying industry,” he says. “I recommend using Array with all of your herbicides. It has helped my crops and my custom spraying business tremendously.”

Reduce Drift Concerns

Along with the use of this new spray adjuvant, Obery credits drift control nozzles with eliminating most drift problems while improving herbicide performance.

Obery uses Turbo TeeJet nozzles at 20 to 90 pounds per square inch of pressure to give a median micron size of 400 or more.

Obery says the goal for droplet size should be 200 to 600 microns. A spray droplet falling 3 feet with a five mph wind will drift less than 10 feet if it is 200 microns or larger. If less than 200 microns, the particles will drift more than 10 feet.

Unfortunately, Obery says there are still farmers applying herbicides with flat-fan nozzles at 60 pounds of pressure per square inch. At this pressure, Obery says 24 percent of the spray…