Most farmers probably don't have enough insurance or the necessary coverage for a modern farm, said coordinator of Purdue Pesticide Programs Fred Whitford. Increasing use of farm chemicals, combined with complex environmental regulations, means that many farmers aren't well protected in the event of a disaster, said Whitford.

Many insurance policies have an exclusion on environmental matters. The insurance company pays to replace a barn that is blown over by wind, but many companies won't pay to replace the chemicals that were stored in the barn. Furthermore, they won't pay for the damages caused by the spilled chemicals. The amount of damage could be significant, depending on the quantity of chemicals stored. Spillage of a couple of minibulk tanks could result in some considerable environmental costs, taking into account that hazardous material cleanup teams can charge up to $1,000 an hour. Environmental fines place further financial burden on the farmer. If a fish-kill has occurred, the person who caused the damage may be required to restock the fish.

Many farm-insurance policies contain "pollution exclusions," and they are common in boilerplate farm policies, according to Whitford. "We've asked dozens of farmers about their insurance coverage, and we found that many people didn't know that they actually weren't covered for these environmental problems," he says. "Most policies won't cover the actual costs of a transportation accident, for example. If one of your vehicles is in an accident, most policies will fix the truck; but they won't cover the cost of any chemical cleanup."

Whitford said farm fires can put farmers in a real catch-22 situation. "If there is a fire on your farm and the fire department uses water on the fire and causes chemical runoff, almost no insurance policies will pay for the environmental cleanup," he said. "On the other hand, if you tell the fire chief not to put water on the building because it contains chemicals and you don't want to risk chemical runoff, there's a good chance that your insurance won't pay your claim on the building, because the building and equipment could have been saved."

One way to avoid this problem is to place all chemicals in an older building that can be locked. "Don't store chemicals with your best tractor," Whitford says. "Put them in an older building so that if it catches fire you can let it burn and you're not out that much."

The best way to avoid conflicts is to have a better understanding of the insurance you've bought. Here are some questions Whitford suggested that farmers ask their insurance agents:

• What is the extent of coverage for environmental cleanup?

• How much environmental cleanup coverage do I have?

• Am I covered for spills from off-the-farm transportation accidents?

• What is required of me if there is a chemical spill?

• Are there any actions I might take (such as instructing a fire crew not to put water on a chemical fire) that might void my policy?

• Am I covered for chemical spills resulting from temporary storage accidents?

Some have switched to hiring custom applicators to avoid the liabilities involved with storing and applying chemicals themselves. But someone who doesn't have technical legal storage can still be liable for damages that might occur when a chemical is spilled on their property. Your local dealer could park a tanker of anhydrous ammonia on your field, and it could spring a leak. You could then be responsible for containment, reporting, cleanup, and payment of damages. As a precaution, you should ask the dealer if he carries insurance that covers the temporary storage, as they technically own that tank.

Whitford suggested writing down the questions you might have and the coverage you need, and asking your insurance agent to respond in writing. "Unfortunately, some of this coverage is so specialized that even some insurance agents aren't aware of the ins and outs. The insurance agent will need to call the company issuing the policy to find out what is covered and what additional coverage is available," he said. "You can't buy a boilerplate insurance policy that will cover you from head to toe."

Instead, farmers should buy a basic policy and then buy additional riders that are often separate, specialty policies. Unfortunately, not every agent thinks to mention them.

"Today's farmers ought to purchase insurance from folks who know farming," Whitford added. "Farming should be viewed as a business, and you ought to seek advice from people who understand your business."

To learn more, check out Whitford's publication, The Insurance Policy: Protecting Your Business by Understanding Your Policy, which is available at http://www.btny.purdue.edu/Pubs/PPP/PPP-49.pdf. It is full of questions you should ask your insurance agent so that he or she can help get you the coverage you need and you can have peace of mind when using or handling farm chemicals.

(Michelle Wiesbrook, adapted from the Ag Answers article, "Unique On-Farm Risks Require Specialized Insurance.")

- Michelle Wiesbrook

A properly equipped and operated boom sprayer is usually the most accurate way to make a broadcast application. For certain broadcast spraying situations, however, using a boom sprayer is not practical. Steep terrain (such as can be encountered along right-of-ways), rough terrain, obstructions like signs and guardrails, and tall brushy vegetation can all make using a boom sprayer difficult. Damage to the equipment or a nonuniform and ineffective application can easily result. Another option in these situations is to use a boomless sprayer, which can provide a wide spraying swath through the use of a single nozzle or a small number of nozzles without the use of a boom. Types of boomless nozzles include the XP BoomJet, the Off-Center, and the FieldJet from TeeJet; the Boom X Tender from Hypro; the Boom Buster from Diversified Fabricators, Inc.; the Boominator from UDOR U.S.A., Inc.; and the Combo-Jet from Wilger.

Two Basic Types of Boomless Nozzles

Despite all these choices, there are essentially two types of boomless nozzles. The first type is often called an off-center nozzle, and it creates a wide spray pattern that is directed primarily off to one side of the nozzle. Figure 1 shows an example of what an off-center nozzle pattern looks like. The XP BoomJet, the Off-Center, the Boom X Tender, and the Boom Buster are all off-center nozzles. Most of the off-center nozzles produce a spray pattern that, in addition to the wide off-center part, also extends beneath and slightly behind the nozzle. When using two off-center nozzles mounted back-to-back, these rearward-projecting portions of the spray pattern are overlapped to prevent skips in coverage. Some off-center nozzles are designed specifically for rights-of-way work and reduce the portion of the spray pattern that extends to the area behind the nozzle, as this is undesirable for roadside and other types of rights-of-way applications. Off-center nozzles are sometimes available in models designed to spray either to the left or to the right, so make sure you select an off-center nozzle suitable for your application. Some manufacturers offer several lines of off-center nozzles designed to cover short to long swath widths.

The second type of boomless nozzle creates a full wide-angle spray pattern with equal spray distribution on both sides of the nozzle center. The FieldJet is a boomless nozzle that produces such a pattern. The Boominator nozzles are available with either off-center or full patterns. The Combo-Jet is unique in that instead of being a single nozzle with a wide spray pattern, it is composed of several swiveling nozzle bodies to which multiple flat-fan nozzles with fan angles varying from 20° to 80° are attached. Each of these individual nozzle tips is set to cover a separate portion of the total swath width. Many boomless nozzle manufacturers offer recommended combinations of nozzles for covering various swaths and making different types of applications. Some of these combinations include the use of a flat-fan nozzle mounted between two off-center nozzles to fill in the center portion of spray and may include a single nozzle body on to which all the individual nozzle tips mount. Table 1 gives more detailed information about the various types of boomless nozzles available.

Table 1. Boomless nozzle types and operating parameters. The gallons per minute (GPM) and swath width ranges are the total possible ranges from all the tip sizes available for that nozzle type; not the range possible from a single tip.

Nozzle Name	Pattern Type*	GPM range	Swath width range**	Pressure range (psi)	Mounting height
XP BoomJet	Off-center	0.7 – 9.6	8.5 – 18.5 ft	20 - 60	Up to 36"
Off-Center	Off-center	0.9 – 36.7	18 – 33.5 ft	30 - 60	Up to 36"
FieldJet	Full	0.7 – 21.6	17 – 36 ft	20 - 40	Up to 36"
Boom X Tender	Off-center	0.9 – 26.3	12 – 20 ft	30 - 60	Up to 48"
Boom Buster	Off-center	1.7 – 37.0	3 – 29.5 ft	30 - 50	Up to 48"
Boominator	Off-center/full	1.0 – 29.0	3 – 44 ft	20 - 40	18 – 48"
Combo-Jet	Multi tip body	0.3 – 55.1	2 – 46 ft	20 - 60	36 – 56"

* For off-center types, GPM and swath width ranges are for a single tip spraying to one side only; mounting two nozzles back to back would double the GPM and swath width

** Based on swath width information provided by the manufacturer. The effective swath width for any boomless nozzle will likely be less than the maximum listed swath due to issues with droplet size, coverage, and deposition.

How to Calibrate a Boomless Sprayer

Calibrating a boomless sprayer is similar to calibrating a boom sprayer except that the effective sprayed width is typically measured as the total swath width covered by a single nozzle in feet rather than the distance between nozzles in inches. The formula used to calibrate a boomless sprayer is

GPM = (GPA x MPH x SW) / 495

Where

GPM is nozzle flow rate in gallons per minute

GPA is spray application rate in gallons per acre

MPH is ground speed in miles per hour

SW is effective sprayed width in feet

495 is a constant to convert measurement units

Example: You need to make a rights-of-way application covering a 15-foot swath using a single off-center nozzle. You will be operating the sprayer at 6 MPH, and the herbicide you are using recommends a spray application rate of 15 GPA. What nozzle flow rate is required to make this application?

GPM = (15 GPA x 6 MPH x 15 SW) / 495

GPM = 2.7

This formula can be used for boomless sprayers with a single nozzle or multiple nozzles. When using multiple nozzles, such as two off-center nozzles mounted back-to-back to spray from both sides of an ATV, simply divide by 2 the total swath in feet you want to cover to determine your swath width for each of the two nozzles.

Mounting a boomless nozzle correctly is important for achieving a uniform pattern and generating the desired swath width. The nozzle height, mounting angle, and spray pressure all affect the width and uniformity of the spray pattern. The spray height affects the total sprayed width; mounting the nozzle higher increases the total width of the spray pattern. However, increasing the nozzle height also increases the risk of spray drift because the spray droplets are exposed to the wind for a longer period of time due to the increased travel distance. Also, increasing the total swath width covered does not necessarily increase the effective swath width. Coverage and uniformity at the edges of the spray pattern may be dramatically reduced if too wide a swath width is used. Always check the manufacturer's recommendations for nozzle mounting height.

For off-center nozzles, the angle at which the nozzle is mounted also affects the pattern width and uniformity. Angling the spray pattern upward from a horizontal direction increases the swath width, while angling the spray pattern downward from a horizontal direction decreases the swath width. Again, refer to the manufacturer's recommendation to determine what angle the nozzle should be mounted at to achieve a uniform application and the desired swath width.

With pressure, increasing the pressure increases the width of the spray pattern, while decreasing the pressure decreases the width of the spray pattern. Changing the pressure also changes the nozzle flow rate, thus changing the spray application rate and the spray droplet size. Always operate the nozzle within the pressure range recommended by the manufacturer.

When using dual off-center nozzles mounted back-to-back to create a single, wide, boomless spray pattern, make sure you overlap the inboard edges of the patterns according to the manufacturer's recommendations to avoid skips in coverage in the center. When making multiple passes with boomless nozzles, be sure to overlap the ends of the adjacent patterns sufficiently to avoid skips in coverage. The amount of overlap required varies among nozzle types but is typically listed by manufacturers as being between 12 and 18 inches; check the instructions for the type of nozzle you use to find the specific distance required for your nozzle and type of application.

Boomless Nozzle Research

A recent study led by Bob Wolf at Kansas State University looked at the effectiveness of some of the more commonly used boomless nozzles: the XP BoomJet, the Boom X Tender, the Boom Buster, and the Combo-Jet. The manufacturer of the Boominator declined to participate in the study. The study examined the efficacy, uniformity of control, effective swath width, and droplet size. Tests with the four nozzles were carried out by spraying glyphosate (a systemic herbicide) and paraquat (a contact herbicide) on two stages of wheat: short (4 to 5 inches tall) and tall (24 to 30 inches tall). All tests were carried out using a spray application rate of 18 gallons per acre at a speed of 3.5 miles per hour, with spray pressure at 45 psi. Nozzles were set up and operated according to the manufacturers' instructions to deliver the rated swath widths of 18 feet for the Boom X Tender, Boombuster, and Combo-Jet, and 14 feet for the BoomJet. For all nozzles except the Combo-Jet, a single tip was used to spray to one side of the ATV sprayer used in the tests. The nozzles on the Combo-Jet were configured to spray to only one side of the ATV as well.

Efficacy was measured by visually assessing the percentage of wheat controlled (killed) in the tall wheat. Uniformity of control was also visually evaluated in the tall wheat using a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most uniform. To determine the effective swath width, the total width of the effectively controlled area was measured, starting at the edge of the first wheat row in the plot in both the short and tall wheat. Spray droplet size was measured using water-sensitive paper analyzed with a flatbed scanner and a special software program called DropletScan.

With glyphosate, there were no differences in percent control between nozzle types, with all the nozzles providing 100% control. With paraquat, however, there were differences in control between the four nozzle types. The Boom X Tender had the highest control, with 77%; followed by the Boom Buster with 73%; the Combo-Jet with 67%; and the XP BoomJet with 60%. In terms of uniformity of control, there were no major differences between the four nozzles using glyphosate, with all the nozzles having a score of 7, except for the Combo-Jet, which had a score of 8. The paraquat treatments did show greater differences between the nozzle types though. The Boom X Tender and the Boom Buster had the highest uniformity scores with an 8, followed by the Combo-Jet with a 7 and the XP BoomJet with a 5.

All of the boomless nozzles tested had extra-coarse droplet spectrums. The volume median diameters (VMD) for the nozzles tested in the study ranged from 684 to 799 microns. (See the January 2004 issue of IPR for more information on the measurement and classification of spray droplet size.) Previous research has indicated that ideally sized droplets for most foliar herbicide applications are between 300 and500 microns. The larger droplets from the boomless nozzles are needed to create the wide spray pattern; but they also reduce coverage, because there are fewer droplets, and reduce deposition, because the larger droplets are more likely to bounce or roll off the plant surface.

The rated swath widths and the effectively controlled swath widths for the four nozzles using both glyphosate and paraquat in the short and tall wheat can be seen in Figure 2. An examination of the effective-sprayed-width data revealed that none of the nozzles, except for the BoomJet spraying paraquat on the short wheat, had an effective sprayed width that equaled the rated swath width. For all nozzle types and both herbicides, the effective swath width was reduced in the tall wheat from what it was in the short wheat. The lower effective sprayed width compared to the rated swath width was most likely a result of reduced coverage and deposition on the outer edges of the spray pattern, caused by the large spray droplet size. Another important observation made during the study was that wind direction relative to the direction of travel affects the width of the spray pattern.

Tips for Using Boomless Sprayers

When setting up a boomless sprayer, it is recommended to check the width of the spray swath. This can be accomplished by spraying on a flat surface such as concrete or asphalt and measuring the total distance covered with spray. To evaluate pattern uniformity, watch the evaporation rate of the spray from the surface. Quicker evaporation means less spray was deposited there, and slower evaporation means more spray was deposited there. If you notice the swath width is not what you want or you find irregularities in the spray pattern, you can try adjusting the nozzle mounting height, angle, or spray pressure to change the swath width or improve pattern uniformity. Keep in mind that changing either the swath width or the pressure also changes your spray application rate, and that raising the height increases the risk of drift. Also, based on the previously mentioned study, remember that taller vegetation blocks more spray and thus reduces the effective swath width for boomless nozzles. Make sure your pump is capable of providing the required flow rate and pressure for the nozzle you select. This is critical for obtaining a longer effective spray width. Pay attention as well to wind speed and direction relative to your direction of travel. Wind can shorten and distort the spray pattern, thus reducing your effective sprayed width. While mounting the nozzle higher can increase the total swath width of a boomless sprayer, the interaction with wind could possibly reduce the effective swath width and increase the potential for drift.

When you first start using your boomless sprayer, revisit application sites to determine how effective the sprayer was operating. You may determine you need to shorten your effective swath width due to reduced control on the outer edge of the spray pattern. Also, as the previously mentioned study showed, the effective sprayed width and overall efficacy of boomless nozzles can vary between herbicide types, so don't assume that what worked well with one product will work well with another. By properly setting up and operating a boomless sprayer, you will be able to make broadcast applications effectively and safely in areas where the use of a boom sprayer would be difficult. (Scott Bretthauer)

- Scott Bretthauer

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was the site of the 2008 North Central Region Pesticide Education and Certification Workshop, held August 18 to 20. About 65 attendees represented Extension pesticide safety specialists and state pesticide regulators from 13 states, the USDA, and EPA to learn about and discuss topics affecting various aspects of pesticide safety education, application, and regulation. This was an opportunity for pesticide safety educators and certification officials to come together as colleagues and discuss matters affecting pesticide applicators in their programs. The Pesticide Safety Education Program's goal was to increase every workshop participant's ability to advance the safe and effective use of pesticides not only in the North Central Region but also across the world, as many of the participants are active in this arena way beyond their individual states. States represented were Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.

Breakfast meetings were held for society members of both the American Association of Pesticide Safety Educators (AAPSE) (http://aapse.ext.vt.edu/) and the American Association of Pesticide Control Officials (AAPCO) (http://aapco.ceris.purdue.edu/) to discuss pressing issues.

Workshop presentations covered such topics as

• Distance education and testing systems

• Kansas's sensitive-crops Web site

• Sprayer-calibration survey

• Fungicide-exposure case studies

• Establishing continuing-credit hour numbers

• What certification test scores really tell us

• Improving joint efforts to better serve clientele

• How manuals get written versus how they get used

• Needs of bilingual clientele

• Licensing issues surrounding aerial applications

• Illinois PSEP operations

• Dicamba-resistant crops from a company standpoint

• Dicamba-resistant crops from a tomato grower's standpoint

• Insurance issues related to pesticides

On the second day, participants loaded into buses for a series of tours that included Syngenta's seed-treatment facility at Tuscola, Illinois, and the Drift Garden and the Poisonous Plant Garden, both on the U of I campus. Pesticide application demonstrations were also given in aquatics, trees, and turf. Participants were encouraged to take photos for use in new publications and trainings. The tour concluded with a banquet and sightseeing at Robert Allerton Park near Monticello, Illinois.

Several attendees provided feedback, saying they thought the workshop was time well spent. There was much to learn, and it was a good opportunity to catch up with colleagues and old friends.

Pictures: Andrew Thostenson of North Dakota State University, sharing his experiences using distance education; Ray Cornwell, demonstrating a tree-injection application; Tour participants, learning about poisonous plants.

(Michelle Wiesbrook)

- Michelle Wiesbrook