We have a Kubota 3901 and I am looking at a Fimco boomless sprayer that has a 16’ spray pattern that attaches to your 3 point hitch. Anyone using a sprayer? We have 20 acres and I need to spray 18 for weeds.
I do! I use a 35 gallon pull-behind sprayer on my 20 acres. It has a boom and attached wand --does about a 10 foot swath at a pass. I need lighter weight sprayer due to nearly vertical hills in my pastures and yard --well, not exactly vertical but too much weight behind me will push me down the hill or make the tractor struggle to go up. I spray weeks in the Spring --DH figures I’ve “reclaimed” 2-4 acres from inedible weeds. I spray broadleaf herbicide (liquid Trimec) and liquid fertilizer in one pass --takes me about 6 hours to do the whole place, but I never do it all at once. This year I could not buy liquid fertilizer (CoRon) as the Chemical Company (Helena) was saving all they had for the “real” farmers --but I’ve been using the same mix for 15 years so missing one season isn’t going to affect my grass. I look forward each year to spraying --it is the start of Spring! I wear my bathing suit and get some sun while I’m about it riding the tractor For some reason the Amish neighbor always mows his field at the same time . . .
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Our property is a ton of hills. We are building toward the back of the property and this part of the land is 90’ higher than the road in front of our property. What powers your sprayer? My tractor does not have an external power source so the sprayer comes with a cable with alligator clips to clip onto the tractor battery.
Look at the cost of have a professional service do your spraying. I was pretty amazed at the estimated cost for them to do our 10 acre hayfield. It is less than the cost of buying my own herbicide!
Pasture Pro (2-4-D product) is over $110, for the 2.5 gallon container. I have a 60 gallon spray tank, which needs 4 refills to do the 10 acres. I think son told me 2 gallons to 10 gallons water was the proper ratio!! Yikes. I have been mixing wrongly in the past so clover was laughing at me! That is a huge cost for needed herbicide. More economical to pay the professionals!
Added bonus of my not being exposed to spray. They are licensed, know their product, can get in and out in a short time. Spraying takes me hours with the 8ft sprayer.
I DO NOT recommend spraying unless you are fully covered, long pants, tall socks, long-sleeve shirt buttoned to the collar, gloves and hat. If you read ALL the paperwork that comes with herbicides, they recommend full body coverage, no herbicide contact with your skin for safety.
@Foxglove Spraying while tanning could be cumulative, surprise you with some nasty body issue in the future. Just a VERY BAD idea. Hope I am wrong for your sake!! Think about the guy who started the Roundup case for his cancer. No precautions taken while spraying for years. He was dead by the time case was resolved, his estate collected the settlement.
Added: Corrected ratio. Son told me 1 gallon to five gallons water, but I wrote that other, wrong ratio.
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I have a 3 pt sprayer that powers off the tractor battery and love it. Easier for me to store than a pull behind, and I can back right up to the fence line or into corners. Boomless would be nice, I do have to be careful to not catch the ends on the fence, or it can pull off the nozzles.
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So looking at Pasture Pro, it is $100 per 2 1/2 gallon bottle. The instructions say mix 2 gallons in 10 gallons of water making 12 gallons of spray. 1 gallon treats 2-4 acres. so roughly $20 to spray my front 4 acres.
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@goodhors --understand your concerns RE sun and Trimec --Trimec is not RoundUp. And yes, I do my spraying in my bathing suit. Most likely I am in far more danger from the sun than from the once-a-year application of Trimec. Ironically --it is my DH who has had brushes with skin cancer --he spent 70 years of sitting in an office compared to me an outdoor girl who SCUBA dives whenever possible (sun x 2 as it reflects off the water).
Back to the topic: @CindyCRNA --when I bought my tractor (Kubota) I told them I wanted a “pig tail” added to the back so I could plug in my sprayer without alligator clipping to the battery. They did that --little piece of wire that hangs above my 3-point hitch and I plug into a socket from my sprayer. There is a small pump on the sprayer itself.
I’ve had this sprayer for maybe 20-25 years --amazing it has held up as long as it has with the beating I give it each year. So far I’ve replaced the wiring harness (once --hung up on a low branch and ripped it off), the pump (once --just gave up --I bought one at TSC and put it on myself --easy peas) some of the tubing --again, it’s easy to do --and the actual hand held sprayer --I ran over the old one. Ooops. Once word of caution --there are filters in lots of places --I always knew to check the filter on the pump intake --ok —but I didn’t know there were tiny filters in the nozzles. You need to unscrew them, clean the little filters, and screw them back on adjusting for flow direction.
Finally --each to his/her own on what to spray or spread. The professionals came ONCE and said they would not come again due to my hills. With my little sprayer, it takes longer, but I can get every place. My cost last year was about $22/acre for Trimec --would have been $50 if I’d added fertilizer. My DH (accountant) says I save that in 1) hay 2) lawn service --as long as I’m spraying, I take care of our 3 acre lawn too --He loves his lawn and is not the kind of fella who would like it to “go natural” as our neighbors have --lots of wildflowers, true but longs of weeds as well. Again, each to his/her own. With my 25 gallon sprayer, I can do two-to three acres before a refill – I use an APP to figure my mix “TankMix Calculator” --I used my Dressage Ring to get an idea of what my coverage rate is (Full size Dressage ring is 1/3 acre). At the start of each summer, I spray the Dressage arena with a tank of water, then see how much is left to know what my rate of coverage is. It takes me about an hour to do 6 acres --with one fill up.
I have found my best sources of help to be the 1) extension agent (he told me mow or spray, both control weeds equally well --for me spraying is cheaper/easier than mowing) 2) the guys at Helena Chemical who came out and did a soil sample then sold me the right mix to improve my pasture 3) my hay-guy --he is a wealth of information on growing good grass.
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Which sprayer do you have?
CountyLine 25 Gallon Trailer Sprayer, Maximum 70 PSI, 38 Foot Maximum Vertical Spray, 26 Foot Maximum Horizontal Spray, 97702 from TSC. Pretty sure Kubota sells similar.
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Hi Cindy
I used to have one, a 50gallon tank that mounted via the 3-point, the pump ran off of the PTO, two folding booms gave it about a 20ft swath.
I bought it cheap/used. It worked OK once I got everything repaired/re-plumbed, but it was a PITA, and I can’t really recommend going to the trouble unless you really plan on doing a bunch of spraying. There is a surprising amount of fairly technical set-up the get the applied “dosage” correct, and then quite a bit of fluid transfer involved (I was spraying herbicide for Knapweed, and you can’t just dump the leftover chemicals.), etc, plus you have to drain/winterize as well.
My best advice: pay someone to do it for you.
This is great advice IF you can find someone who can get to it it a timely manner.
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Yeah, well . . .
It has become a trial to get anyone to do anything these days, sure enough, and why I generally try to DIY when I can.
The chemical sprayer, tho?!? Do your homework and be very honest with yourself about what you are getting into before spending your hard-earned dollars.
If you have to do multiple applications per season, on 20 acres, you’re probably out past the break-even point cost-wise, but don’t forget to include your time and trouble in the equation.
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Yeah that’s the part that stumped me! I bought a 3-point sprayer, tried to learn how to calibrate it, thought I did, used it twice, and clearly messed it up badly because I ran out of liquid way before I was supposed to. I only have 3 acres of pasture so I just use a backpack sprayer now. Pathetic I know but it’s a lot less stressful.
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There are some great tools out there to help with application amount & rate.
Your city or county GIS is super helpful to measure the area you’re spraying (Google city name/county name GIS.)
Or, use the daft logic site (I find the gis maps usually easier to navigate) https://www.daftlogic.com/projects-google-maps-area-calculator-tool.htm
Once you know area, there are apps like this one:
That will calculate what goes in the tank.
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I think the problem people are having is they are driving too fast or too slow and are under/over dosing. You do need to calibrate with water in the tank OR set the spray rate as low as you can and plan to double pass - once N-S, once E-W
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Speed is one variable that’s accounted for in the app I linked above.
You can figure out how fast you’re going with any speedometer app. I’ve never found it necessary to calibrate with water or double pass.
However weeds are not a one and done thing. I would guess spraying for weeds on property that hasn’t been sprayed is going to be 3-4 times the first year and then we’ll see. If I buy a sprayer, I’ll recoup the cost the first time. We had a company bid our front 4 acres for planting grass seed…not weed spraying or anything, was $5000. We are trying to do what we can and hire out what we can’t .
I’ve got 22 acres, but split into smaller paddocks & fields.
Because we use the tractors for all kinds of stuff and its a big beast I keep a mounted sprayer (tank and wired in pump) on my old Honda quad.
I don’t weed kill unless absolutely dire, but topping regularly takes care of most stuff we get here. I spray liquid seaweed, minerals & soil improving microbes every paddock change over (each one gets done roughly six weekly) so its in weekly use from April to November.
Smaller set up really works for me, but anything over 3 acres would be an absolute ball ache to do on the quad.
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Here the USDA Farm Service agency has regular private pesticide/herbicide applicator courses.
The basic one is only a few hours one day and you get a certificate as a private pesticide/herbicide applicator at the end
Those you have to renew every, I think five years.
With that you can buy all kinds of restricted products and you have learned the basics of what they are, what is used in your region and for what and how to calibrate sprayers and apply those products.
In our area, there are some products you can’t spray but at certain times of the year and under specific condition, because of drift and what crops may be planted at different times, that may be sensitive to those products.
You don’t want to chance, to zap weeds in your pasture, kill half the crop across the fence, or trees around your neighbor’s house.
If someone has to do much spraying, is really worth checking into.
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@Foxglove’s terrain and tractor set up sounds similar to ours, except we use a 4-wheeler. We have one hill that is almost too dangerous to bushog with the farm tractor, much less attach spraying equipment to it.
We spray ~24 acres. The Co-op won’t spray our pastures due to the terrain, including a whopping rock ledge, so we bought the biggest system that a 4-wheeler can pull, from Northern Tool.
I forget how many gallons the pull behind sprayer is. It has adjustable arms and also a hand held wand. It works terrific behind the 4-wheeler. It’s a good multi-tasker; DH used it this weekend to power wash the house.
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