This year, AGCO Corporation is enhancing its crop tour with an application-focused study in addition to dedicated tillage and planting crop tours. AGCO and its dealers have invested in crop tours as a means to better understand the agronomic impact that equipment options, settings, and practices can have on yield and ultimately grower profitability. 

There will be three unique application crop tour plots located in the US, including a cotton plot in Tifton, Georgia and two soybean plots in the Midwest – one in Farmer City, Illinois and another in Vincent, Iowa.  The application crop tour is geared to gather data and insights that will help educate growers and commercial applicators on the impact of key variables in the application process. 

Four overarching protocols will be administered and reviewed during the 2020 growing season:

• Boom Height – How varied boom heights affect spray efficacy, consistency and accuracy
• Boom Contamination – Contamination and the risk of crop damage
• Boom Priming – The risks and impacts associated with boom priming, weed resistance and crop damage
• Nozzle Selection and Droplet Size – How proper selection of nozzles for speed and droplet size impact the application.

David Webster, application director at AGCO, is excited about the idea of demonstrating these impacts.

“If you think about the significant input costs a grower has with herbicide, pesticide and fungicide, it is critically important that the job gets done with a high degree of quality.  It’s really all about efficacy, and that’s what we’re looking to showcase with these plots,” Webster said.

The application team will utilize several methodologies to measure the impact of the variables, and ultimately, yield results.  Over the next several months, AGCO will be releasing digital content related to the tours, including video, photos, and discussion related to the application protocols and the results they’re seeing in the field.