The use of bulk packaging has exploded in broadacre agriculture in Australia. 1,000 L IBCs and 110 L mini bulk container are being used for on-farm convenience, container management or for a better price. But what do these bulk containers do to the stability of products that were initially designed for 10 L or 20 L containers?

The front pages of some major, rural papers have been covered with agrochemical product recalls caused by contamination. There can be many reasons for a recall of which cross contamination is but one.

At some time, most farm advisors have wondered whether their clients are getting all of the spray residues out of their spray lines and what this might be doing to the following crop.  Nobody wants a crop failure complaint! Do Sprayer Hose Materials Differ in their Residue Risk?

Last year, a new knockdown, ready-to-use (RTU) product entered the home garden market with much fanfare and the promise to cause visual results within an hour.   Having tested many home garden products that have made wild claims we were sceptical – but we were wrong!

At Eureka!, we have considerable knowledge and excellent facilities to test product for use in home gardens.  I interviewed Liam Flynn, a Project Manager at Eureka!, about the studies that Eureka! has conducted on this new product and how it stacked up against its own claims. 

Around Australia farmers are currently spraying their winter crops for weeds. Spraying in winter often means battling with rain and wondering whether adjuvants are worth the cost.

In this month’s article, we’ll explore how we dramatically increase the rainfastness of an EC herbicide using an adjuvant.

In Part 1 of this series we explained how:

• trifluralin stops weed growth by inhibiting the division of cells at the root tip,
• trifluralin vapour moves very short distances through soil and so vapour movement won’t compensate for poor application,
• trifluralin is primarily absorbed into grasses through the roots rather than the coleoptile and so is far more potent when applied to the weed’s root zone,
• volatilisation can cause the loss of more than 60% of applied trifluralin and,
• studies have shown that trifluralin loses due to UV degradation have been low, generally less than 5% even under high UV conditions.

In this article we will review how soil type and soil pH affects the efficacy of trifluralin.  

Trifluralin is one of the most widely used herbicides in Australia.  Despite it being in use since the 1970s, it is surprising how many myths exist around how it works.  Eureka! has conducted dozens of experiments with trifluralin.  Over the next couple of newsletters I will share some of our findings with you.  In this article I will cover how trifluralin kills weeds, its movement through the soil as a gas, where it is absorbed into the plant and the proportion that is lost to volatilisation and UV degradation.  Please note that the scientific methods used in the experiments described here are too lengthy for this article.  If you want more information on them please contact me.