Who pays the bill when custom sprays fail?
. BYCURTHARLER
JIEWVILLE - When
Cumberland County fanner
Dan Martin, Jr. walked his
com fields this fall it was
obvious there was little com
worth harvesting.
It was a bitter pill for a
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first year farmer. ASCS
officials looked at his 85
acres of corn and estimated
a yield of 48 bushels per
acre—hardly enough to fill
two 20 by 70 silos for feeding
85 cows.
Martin, who had tried a no-
320 Kin* SL
Mytratmm, PA 17057
Plwm 717-MC-7544
A 1981
tiU planting, placed the
blame on a lack of weed
control.
No one seems to dispute
his analysis. Cumberland
County Ag Agent Don
Overdorff says weed control
could have been a lot better.
Fields were streaky,
although not all fields had
poor control.
Where the questions begin
is when Martin blames the
custom applicator for the
poor weed control. Martin
said he feels the custom
sprayer should take steps to
make up at least part of the
crop loss.
Jack Anderson of An
dgrow, which did the custom
work, agreed the weed
control was poor.
Anderson said his
representative, Ed Pallman,
a man with 19 year’s field
expenence, put the blame on
the lack of ram after the
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Princip, atrazine, and
paraquat were applied.
Overdorff tended to agree
that the dry conditions hurt
weed control.
For one thing, Martin’s
com was planted late. It was
put in the ground between
June 15 and 18 and was
sprayed on June 20. The late
planting date was one reason
Martin chose to go the no-till
route.
Those corn plants which
could fight off the weeds
grew to maturity. But the
weeds took their toll.
So the situation stands this
week: farmer Martin has
half a crop of com. Who’s
responsible?
In the first place, it should
be noted that any respon
sibility for crop failure due
to chemicals applied by a
custom applicator can be
divided into two categories.
The first class would be
“Evening”
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Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 1,1980-B9
misapplication by the
custom applicator. This
would include using the
wrong material on a crop,
the wrong formulation, or
unproper spraying of the
material onto the crop.
The second class would be
failure of a properly for
mulated, properly applied
material to work.
According to Penn
sylvania Department of
Agriculture’s David
Thompson, the Department
sees itself as a regulatory
agency, not as a consumer
advocate.
“If a product is not
labeled, or is not used as
directed on the label, then
we will get involved,”
Thompson said.
But unless there is a
violation of the pesticide
laws the Department does
not have responsibility, he
said.
He pointed out the
Department does not want to
be referee in situations
where the weed control does
not look like the picture in a
advertisement and the
farmer is upset.
Cases fading into the first
category—improper ap
plication—do occur. An
Armstrong County farmer
had several acres of alfalfa
sprayed by a custom ap
plicator, by accident, with a
com herbicide. Needless to
say, the stand of alfalfa died.
But the sprayer made gopd
on the field, including
replanting costs.
As Anderson said, “If we
kill the crop we have in
surance to cover it.” That is
true of almost all reputable
custom applicators.
In the case where nozzles
clog on a custom ap
plicator's rig, most ap
plicators will either respray
the missed area for free,
apply a post-emergence
material if the crop and
weeds are at the proper
height, or make a set
tlement.
But Dan Martin, Jr.’s case
most likely is in the second
category. The materials
specified by the farmer were
appropriate and were ap
plied to the right fields. They
simply did not do the job.
“I wouldn’t feel so bad if
they at least had come out,
looked at it, made some kind
of an offer,” Martin said.
“He didn’t have to hang up
the phone on me.”
Anderson said Ed
Pallman, his area
representative has all
authority to do whatever is
needed to take care of any
case. Pallman had offered to
apply Evik post-emergence
to the com. This may have
beaten back the weeds.
Representatives from both
Chevron, sellers of
paraquat, and from Ciba-
Geigy, the Prmcep and
AAtrex suppliers, were out
to Martin’s farm.
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But chemical companies
only guarantee their bottle
contains the chemical stated
on the label. They do not
guarantee the materials will
work under all weather
conditions.
Anderson said his firm
would have given Martin the
materials needed to catch up
with the weeds at cost or
perhaps for free depending
on the situation.
“I tried to explain that if
the chemical company will
not guarantee the materials
to us there is no way we can
guarantee the spray to the
fanner,” Anderson said.
“I farm 900 acres of com
myself and I have failures,”
he continued.
“We offered Martin no
settlement. If we had to offer
a rebate every tune a
material failed to work we
may as well go out of
business,” he said.
“I don’t mind being fair,
but after half an hour of
going m circles I did hang
up,” Anderson said.
Anderson said another
problem, in addition to the
weather, was the ground the
no-till corn was planted in.
He pointed out the field
was an old field, one which
may not have been farmed
with top managment
practices for a while.
When Martin took over
and started with no-till he
may not have had the pH he
needed to get optimum weed
control with tnazme her
bicides. Tnazines work best
with pH levels over 6.0. If the
pH is low, the tnazines
almost could be expected not
to work.
County Agent Overdorff
said cases such as Martin’s
point out the need for far
mers to own a sprayer. Even
if a custom applicator does
the bulk of the work, a
sprayer can pay for itself in
a single timely application
that prevents a weed
disaster.
For Jack Anderson—or
any other custom ap
plicator—such a case is
painful because he is likely
to lose a customer but has
neither legal obligation to
pay for the fanner’s loss nor
can afford he to make
payments every time a
material he apphes happens
to fail.
For a farmer just starting
out, or any farmer who has a
banker to face at the end of
the season, it's a disaster.
If neglect or misap
plication can be proved, the
farmer has financial
recourse and the applicator
has insurance.
But if Mother Nature does
not cooperate with the
farmer, sprayer, or material
sprayed, there is no legal
remedy, only another
chapter to be written in the
book of expenence.
Concluded Anderson, “It
happens m farming.’’