Queensland Country Life

A good oil for crops

IMPRESSED: Paul Slack, Moree, sees many advantages to using Spraytec's Fulltec on his crops.
IMPRESSED: Paul Slack, Moree, sees many advantages to using Spraytec's Fulltec on his crops.

This is branded content for Spraytec.

Increasing agricultural productivity while in turn containing multiple functions within a single formulation has been a keen goal for Spraytec Australia.

Specialising in liquid foliar fertilisers and adjuvants to improve overall productivity and reduce costs to growers, Spraytec Australia is an international company established in 1991.

Spraytec technical sales representative Ross Beasley said the company continually strived to launch concepts and products that combine grower convenience with improved crop health, nutrition and protection.

"Spraytec arrived in Australia in 2019, adapting the formula to suit the local conditions," he said.

"By the end of this year, we will have conducted close to 40 national trials in partnership with a number of independent research organisations.

"We are testing our products in different environmental conditions and cropping systems.

"Some of the most notable findings in using our products include:

  • Capacity to replace all other adjuvant combinations with a singular product;
  • Simplified farm management operations that reduce handling and costs;
  • Increased crop yields by complementing in-season spray applications;
  • Improved herbicide efficacy and compatibility in a wide range of chemical mixes;
  • Improved control and efficacy of various problem weeds such as fleabane, paddy melons, mintweed, button grass, common caltrop and many more;
  • Improved quality of spray application water; and
  • Reduced foaming of chemical mixes.

"Our motto is 'use it once, trust it always'."

Fulltec and Fulltec Max, when mixed with a herbicide, are designed to be quickly absorbed through the leaf and into the target plant.

The non-target plant gets a nutrient boost to assist it through any phyto-toxicity.

Paul Slack, farms about 4,860 hectares east of Moree, NSW, purely growing cash crops.

On some hilly country, Mr Slack grows a variety of crops including wheat, chickpeas, sorghum, cotton and sometimes corn on almost a full no-till operation with control traffic tramlining.

"We use Fulltec because as an oil, it mixes really well with other chemicals," he said.

"When I'm using clay base chemicals it mixes really well with them.

"This year I have used it with cotton defoliants.

"In fact, the block that we used it on we only had one defoliation.

"We used a different product on another block which had four defoliations.

"It won't just be good for the cotton though.

"We see benefits to using it for all our crops and I look forward to seeing how it goes."

While Mr Slack was impressed with these results, he was also happy with the amount of Fulltec he had to use.

"The beauty of it is, you are only using 100 millilitres per hectare," he said.

"It's not as if you are using a whole lot, especially compared to some of the other products which are using five litres per 1000 litres."

Another benefit Mr Slack sees with Fulltec is the lack of residue build-up around the nozzle.

"We have a camera sprayer which uses little fine solenoids running every nozzle," he said.

"We need to make sure we use a product that doesn't crystalise or settle out.

"We use a product which leaves a salty solution and crustiness around the o-rings in the solenoid.

"Because Fulltec is an oil and we are only using 100ml, we don't get that same build-up.

"That's where I want to use it the most, in my camera sprayer."

Trying to spray in hill country can be tricky, especially being more susceptible to wind.

"We are always after something which creates low drift," Mr Slack said.

"Fulltec is a product which can do that well.

"We have so many neighbours around here that we don't want to drift so anything we can use to stop that is good.

"Fulltec encases the droplets so it doesn't produce a fine spray."

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