Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 15, 1991, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press july 1991 pages 1724 Philip bus mass editor farm report Phil Futee press v watch technicians Are discovering hard water can Render some chemicals useless in a series of tests near by Larry Kusch Ard water can turn some powerful chemical Weed killers into 97pound weak scientists Are disco Patrick a Weed physiologist with the agriculture Canada research station in said Farmers May be throwing their herbicide dollars away if the water they put into their sprayer tanks contains too much water containing More than 500 parts per million of certain salts and minerals can Render some chemicals he said in an its just a total waste of Money in some Mcmullan it Doest really take a lot of stuff in the water to get that scratch surface Rick a professor with the University of Saskatchewan crop science said Little re search has been done to assess How water hardness affects herbicide were just starting to scratch the surface in but were Start ing to realize that its not a real straightforward kind of he different minerals affect differ ent herbicide and from some of the scientific literature that weve been Able to it May depend on the whole comple ment of minerals in a particular water Sample As to whether a chemical is affected Holm said different combinations of minerals and bicarbonates May antagonize certain chemicals differently or not affect their performance at hard water can make chemicals waste of Money scientists know that the Weed killing agent in the popu Lar herbicide for in is affected by hard Mcmullan another popular product with Prairie is affected by the presence of bicarbonates in farm said he said High Levels of magnesium and bicarbonate also reduce the activity of one Type of the water soluble but seem to have no effect on the other the Oil based but except for the results of tests on a half dozen there is Little known about How water Quality affects herbicide and there Are few guidelines Avail Able for said Mcmullan i think its probably one of the most under re searched areas that weve got in Weed this tests on a limited scale Are being conducted near Brandon and at a couple of locations in Sas most of the work being done in the area is publicly important Issue the Large private companies that produce the chemicals have done Little specific research on How water impurities can Hurt Herbi cide Holm there Hast been a whole lot of work done by chemical compan ies up to he there starting to get a Little More interested and now beginning to document some of these prob Bob an official with which makes Roundup and other said the most important water Quality Issue is whether water is and not whether it has a High Mineral con i would think that most compan ies would say the same he said in an interview from you run the risk of reducing herbicide performance if its not clean irrespective of whether its hard or when Monsanto found in the 1970s that roundups effectiveness was reduced by some types of hard it adjusted the chemicals formulation the ratio of surfactants to Ingratta said any water Quality research the company does is con fined to the development of specific generally most companies try to develop a product that works in a very general situation and anticipates Paul an official with Rhon poulenc in said the herbicide company uses a wide Range of water sources when testing its and it Hast experienced much of a problem with water in our it certainly Hast been he Mark a Weed control specialist with the provincial culture said water Quality can be a More important Factor in herbicide performance when Farmers Are spraying under Adverse environmental Condi in a dry for herbicides Are not always As effective in controlling Hardt Okill and you May see that extra loss in Weed control if your water is not Goodwin Holm More susceptible while water Quality May cause control problems in a year when weeds Are Tough to he a Farmer might not notice any loss of effectiveness in a year like this where moist soil conditions Are causing weeds to grow making them More susceptible to chemical Holm said he Hopes that within five Farmers will be Able to have their farm water Analysed at a Laboratory to see if it will adversely affect the herbicide there planning to Well probably phase in the ser vice on a product by product he researchers bid to kill More weeds by Larry Kusch 00r farm profits and con Cern for the environment Are prompting scientists to look for ways to kill More weeds with less researchers at agriculture can Adas Brandon research Centre and elsewhere Are experimenting with water herbicide additives and new Spray equipment designs that would enable Farmers to Cut Back the amount of chemical they use without sacrificing Weed con Patrick a Federal Weed physiologist at said research indicates that by sharply reducing the amount of water used to disperse a herbicide throughout a Farmers can get at least equal and possibly better Weed control at the same herbicide application but reducing the ratio of water to herbicide creates several prob to cover the same Field area with less Farmers would need to use nozzles with tinier openings that Emit a very Fine but unfortunately these Fine drops can Lead to tremendous herbicide Drift Mcmullan said in an Farmers would be forced to equip their sprayers with a special Metal shroud to Cut Down on wind and that could be quite sex he whats the smaller nozzles would become plugged much More it Means that the producer has to have a very Good filtering has to use ultrapure and if the nozzles Are Farmers wont be Able to detect when they become the result could be rows of Embarrass ing Weed strips throughout their but while there Are several prob lems to be the savings to Farmers in time fewer tank refills and Money from reducing Spray volumes could be Mcmullan if we can establish that going to a reduced Spray then Well Start conducting tests to see How far we can drop the Herbi cide rates and still maintain the Weed he in researchers Are also experimenting with equipment that uses air instead of water As a Carrier to Spray the the goal is to find a Means of reducing herbicide rates through More efficient chemical Applina Mcmullan a Weed control specialist with the provincial agriculture said one Way Farmers can get More value for their herbicide Dollar is to triple rinse All their herbicide the rinse water is thrown into the sprayer tank As part of the water chemical Mark Goodwin said if use this procedure longed by agriculture Extension work ers can improve herbicide efficiency by three per t 3 experiments in the by Bill is this right Way to save our Bacon you make the late in 198 agriculture Canada finds 30 Manitoba Hutt Erite colonies and one of the largest hog farms in the province Are Selling hogs with Antibiotic Levels never before seen in theres great one Hundred hog carcasses Are an other 150 Are agriculture Canada asks health and Wel which has supremacy in Canadas confused food safety sys what to do health and welfare Doest know what to just weeks earlier a Montreal Man has died from eating toxic the health welfare minister Jake Fipp believes the world May ban Canadian but it finds a possible Al though it takes four it learns the United states is consider ing raising its tolerance level the Antibiotic in Roxy Detracy from part per million to 2 the has studied All kinds of evidence and concluded that anti biotic residues in meats is virtually no risk to at the 2 ppm level the is looking Canada would no longer have a what would you do you raise Canadas tolerance level in anticipation of doing the same do you Stop the Manitoba operators from exceeding current Toi Jances and Force them to comply to the near Zero Levels that 99 per cent of Farmers achieve like All you have to do is take animals off the medication for a specified Peri in this Case a and Antibiotic Levels drop to agriculture Canada argued it should be allowed to clean up the Manitoba it maintained Consumers didst need another eign substance in their there were also suspicions that the problem might be drug companies spiking feeding re diets in order to move problem that keeps recurring in this health and welfare chose to raise the tolerance it then pro claimed it had saved the pork Indus then it gave a health Wel fare director a civil service excellence award for her handling of the then it the Canadian pork int fus try was not destroyed As it have nor was another depart ment agriculture a wrong conclusion and decision they had it says in an inter Nal in another internal Docu health welfare lates itself for keeping the matter out of the Media and not hurting Jake Epp agriculture minis Ter John did they act properly have they gained your Trust one postscript the has still not raised its tolerance late in almost three years after Rais ing the tolerance level 2 health and welfare dropped if Back Down to this Agri culture Canada got backup work and again began rejecting Ahi mails with High Levels of now for something completely if animal rights activists were at it this attacking the Sweet and innocent Iowa pork Queen with Cream not the Iowa pork Queen while Dainna Jellings handed out colouring books to children at the recent world pork expo in res activists pushed a Cream pie into her things degenerated from an angry Sandra who owns a carpet business and has no connection to thei then picked up a pie and nailed demonstrator dense berber in the much scuffling ensued a wac no charges were Laid the activist belonged to the peo ple for ethical treatment of Ani Mals whose budget from donations last year totalled Mil lion and which employs j20 f pow Las carib feel Ems been president of the papa grains Pirn t in agriculture Farmers Miglini last a wit fish we 11 i tie grains Efflux Aeija g font l res Sreb vehicle Lor Agrimi tire cad in nil 1 ;