DB-Lancaster Farming Saturday, January 18,1986 Impregnation: farmers save time, EASTON - When Ed Dufault schedules his springtime custom herbicide applications, he no longer has to worry about keeping his customers happy. By using dry weed-and-feed, the Agway plant manager can stay on top of his custom fertilizer blen ding business and still give his customers a quality fertilizer and herbicide application. Dufault, who works at the Johnsonville plant, has been of fering impregnation for the past four years and reports that it has not only helped to boost sales of both fertilizers and herbicides, but has also attracted new customers to the dealership. And farmers like Willard Setzer Ed Oufault of Agways says impregnation can be done easily and quickly. His impregnator and 175-gallon herbicide bulk tank are located near each other, so there's no need to move and pour containers. 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In 1985, we applied impregnated fertilizer on 2,000 acres.” The actual process of im pregnation may take Dufault longer to carry out than filling a spray truck, but it combines fer- CALL p, ease contact me with li V Additional Information 738-4248 Name Address Town , r 1 1 I'/Ijps County _ Stole llllllii nnu.i tilizer and herbicide applications. And that can reduce the work hours for the dealership in the long run because it means only me custom trip across the field for the customer. Roy Aber, salesman for Agway, says his customers value the convenience of the combined trip as well as the economics. “Farmers say convenience is as much a necessity as it is a luxury,” Aber stresses. “When they can get their preplant operations done in a faster time period, then planting earlier can easily become a reality.” Aber points out farmers would rather share the application responsibilities than do everything themselves. “We put in our one trip and the farmer puts in his trip and when it’s done, the farmer can go ahead and plant,” he says. The impregnation process takes relatively little time. Dufault measures the dry fertilizer and puts it into the five-ton mixer while he measures the herbicides into the impregnator. The herbicide is then metered into the mixer arid is blended for several minutes. Until last year, Dufault had to pour the herbicides from five gallon containers. In 1985, he bought herbicides from Stauffer Chemical Company in 175-gallon mini-bulk tanks to use for his impregnation set-up. Now all he has to do is pump the herbicide from the tanks into the im pregnator. “We no longer have to spend the time opening and pouring the containers,” Dufault notes. “And best of all, we don’t have to worry about rinsing and disposing them.” The herbicides Dufault uses in his impregnation business include Eradicane Extra™, Sutan™, COMPARE OUR QUALITY, POWER. WARRANTY and LOW PRICES YOU’LL SEE WHY THOUSANDS TRUST THE # 1 DISCOUNT BATTERY StORE SIMM SPRINt (215)777-5284 TEMPLE (215)921 0246 BETHLEHEM (215)867-6077 dtrazine and Bladex™ for com, Eptam™ for alfalfa and Treflan™' and Sencor™for soybeans. “We only use preplant in corporated herbicides because they require mixing with the soil,” Dufault says. “When you use granular fertilizers, it’s best to get them down a few inches in the soil.” Dufault chooses the herbicide rates 99 percent of the time. If weed problems are severe and soils are heavy, he will go toward the higher label recommendation. As far as the rate of fertilizer, Dufault likes to put down a minimum of 300 pounds an acre but will spread as much as 900 pounds if fertilizer needs are great. Dufault has one spreader truck for custom application but farmers who like to apply the mixture themselves can rent out buggies. The spreader truck, which puts out the mixture in a 40-foot swath, is designed to provide a uniform fertilizer distribution pattern. Weed-and-feed applications require greater precision for maximum weed control so ac curate application is necessary. “We really like to do the work ourselves because then we know it is being spread properly,” he says. “Our driver has been doing this for 15 years and does an excellent job.” One of Dufault’s customers, Willard Setzer, of Easton, doesn’t mind sharing some of his preplant operations with the dealership. By splitting the duties with Dufault, Setzer has cut out one trip across the field, which allows him to spend more time with other far ming duties. Setzer grows 1,000 acres of com, soybeans, wheat and alfalfa, in addition to running a 60-head dairy operation. For four years, he has used impregnation on his com acreage. “Weed-and-feed was a natural for my production program. I was already applying my fertilizer in a separate trip, but by combining it “Brand W’K Ballories Are All Wp Sell" j Battery Warehouse HARRISOURC (717)652 0565 LANCASTER (717)392 8484 MECHANICSOURC (717)6974414 ALTOONA (814)942 2888 NEW OXFORD (717)6244681 WESTMINSTER MO (301)076 7188 CHAMOERSOURC , (717) 264 7414 WHITEHALL <215)4335188 LANCHORNE (215) 757 8300 MONTCOMERYVILLE (215)368-0168 HAGERSTOWN MD (301) 791 7780 HAZLETON (717) 455-6600 By splitting preplant oper ations with his dealer, Willard Setzer, of Easton, Pa., can speed up springtime duties am can increase chances of getting the crop planted on time. with the herbicide application, I essentially am getting a free trip across the field,” Setzer says. Setzer has used Eradicane Extra for the past eight years on John songrass-infested acres. When he switched to impregnation, he in cluded the herbicide in his weed control program. Dufault now sprays one gallon of Eradicane Extra and two quarts of Bladex on 700 pounds of 25-16-13 fertilizer and gets a complete weed-and-feed mix. Setzer obtains good results with this herbicide combination, but also cultivates his fields prior to the application to aid in controlling Johnsongrass. Corn stalks are disced once in the fall and twice in the spring. After the impregnation application is made, Setzer goes over the fields with a 2(tfoot disc to incorporate the mixture two to three inches in the soil. WILKES OARRE (717) 824 2995 DOVER DE <302)6744020 SOMERSET (814)4431133 FREDERICK MD (301)662 2288 OELAIR MD (301)879-4323 All LOCATIONS ARE IN PA UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED,
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