Published on 01/07/2020
Along with known names such as Pulse Penetrant, Bonza adjuvant oil and Contact Xcel spreader, the company has also introduced Tank and Equipment Cleaner, Foam Wrecker anti-foam agent, and Foam Marker foaming agent, plus Amigo, the drift reduction specialist. Jeff Hurst, Nufarm territory manager based in Ashburton,says the new products complement Nufarm’s existing crop protection offering and make it easy for growers to source all their requirements from one supplier.
Amigo in particular has some key benefits, in that it was formulated specifically to reduce spray drift, rather than combining drift reduction with other attributes.“We’ve done quite a bit of work that shows Amigo achieves asignificant reduction in spraydrift, and importantly it performs well at low use rates. As well as creating more uniform droplet size and increasing drop-let retention, it also has an excellent anti-foam system built in.” The new product is plant friendly, and does not cause cuticleor cell injury, unlike some adjuvants – oils for example – which can disrupt chemical uptake and translocation.
Recommended for aerial application, challenging conditions and around sensitive crops and areas, Amigo works well with the Nufarm phenoxy herbicide range, and with CRUCIAL, Lion and WeedMaster. But with glyphosates in particular, it must not be used in combination with Pulse Penetrant or other organosilicones, Hurst stresses “Amigo and Pulse Penetrant are quite antagonistic to each other when combined with glyphosate. It’s a case of choosing one or the other, not both. Used together they compromise each other’s performance,” he says.“ That’s because Pulse Penetrant is designed to reduce th esurface tension of the glyphosate spray droplet, so that it spreads over a greater surface area. Amigo, in effect, does the opposite.“ In New Zealand, Pulse Penetrant is essential with glyphosate in spring when you have that waxy outer cuticle on the ryegrass leaf, so it’s always the first choice for getting the absolute best out of spring spray-out.“ But at other times, when conditions are less than ideal for drift, you’d use Amigo to mitigate that risk of drift instead.”
Hurst says it’s also important to note Amigo has no drift reduction effect on Nufarm’s 2,4-D herbicide Relay Super S. This EC formulation already contains emulsifiers that reduce driftable droplets very effectively; adding more can cause destabilization and increase spray drift.
For more detail, contact your Nufarm territory manager.