shop online at www.missourivalleyshopper.com March 17, 2015 • Page 15 NATIONAL AG WEEK Blasting Weeds Away With Grit Jim Eklund drives as agronomist Frank Forcella blasts small weeds away with pressurized grit from a prototype of PAGMan (Propelled Abrasive Grit Management) Jim Eklund drives as agronomist Frank Forcella blasts small weeds away with pressurized grit from a prototype of PAGMan (Propelled Abrasive Grit Management) The timeless struggle against weeds is especially tough for organic farmers, who avoid using highly concentrated toxic herbicides in favor of chemical-free methods like hand-pulling, soil tillage, and scorching. These methods are time-consuming and expensive, and they tend to be less efficient than standard herbicides. Fortunately, the war on weeds has a new nonchemical weapon to add to its arsenal: a machine that obliterates weeds by blasting them with grit. Propelled Abrasive Grit Management (PAGMan) is a device created by agronomist Frank Forcella and a team from South Dakota State University in Brookings and the USDAARS North Central Soil Conservation Research Laboratory in Morris, Minn. The system disintegrates weeds with high pressure grit particles while leaving the surrounding crops intact. Forcella got the idea while he was daydreaming about uses for the five gallon bucket of apricot pits he had lying around the house. It just seemed wasteful to throw away all these pits, and it got me wondering what the apricot industry does with them. It turns out they sometimes grind them up and use the grit in sandblasters. Sandblasting, or abrasive blasting, uses high pressure to propel grit in order to smooth, shape, and clean surfaces. Out in the field one day, my colleague and I thought, What if we could adapt the sand blasters to control weeds? said Forcella. We kind of laughed it off but the PHOTOS BY IOWA AG LITERACY Game Of Drones idea didnt go away. A little internet research revealed that a small sandblaster wouldnt break the budget, so they gave it a try. They bought a tiny sandblaster and, using corn cob grit, they tested it out in the greenhouse on common weeds growing alongside corn. When the corn is about six to 12 inches tall, and the weeds are just poking up, you blast them for just a split second with the corn grit and, sure enough, the weeds disappear, said Forcella. With this timing of the pelting process, the strong, established corn plants remain intact and can continue to grow. But the tender leaves of the emerging weeds succumb to the blasting process. Without the leafy tops on the weed plants to photosynthesize, the weeds Photo by Dean Peterson root system withers away, and the weed dies. After determining which stage of plant growth is best to apply the grit, it was time to take PAGMan to the field. Forcella used a bigger unit mounted on an off-road vehicle in a corn field, and, Lo and behold it worked! said Forcella. We found that we could get 80-90% weed control, and with that kind of control you have zero crop loss. The blasters target weeds that sprout among common row crops such as soy and corn. Two applications of the grit treatment work best and should be applied when the crop is tall and strong enough to be unharmed. HUBBS AGENCY, INC. “The Crop Insurance Specialists” Ph. 877-260-5126 or 605-260-5126 Fax 605-260-5128 Dave Hubbs 605-661-2085 Jerrold McDonald 605-661-2844 Justin Hans 402-841-4672 Travis Schumacher 605-760-1500 Chris Hubbs 605-760-3441 Forcella approached organic farmers with the grit-blasting method, some of whom suggested improving the idea by substituting organic fertilizer something farmers have to apply to the soil anyway for the corn cob grit. Many fertilizers, like limestone for instance, just happen to have a granular gritty texture, said Forcella. So farmers can apply the fertilizer and simultaneously blast the smithereens out of weeds. Some weeds, like waterhemp and pigweed, have developed multiple resistance to common herbicides, and are no longer deterred by them. The PAGMan has the potential to assist in controlling these sly weeds on conventional farms as well. With help from Dan Humberg and Cory Lanoue, field machinery engineers at SDSU, and a grant from NCSARE (North Central Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education), the team crafted a larger version of the PAGMan. This version has eight coneshaped nozzles targeted at either side of four rows of crops. The nozzles are connected to a tank that holds the grit material. Tests with the updated and larger PAGMan on corn plots in organically certified fields show favorable results. Forcella hopes to work in conjunction with colleagues to improve the device, possibly adding GPS in order to improve aim accuracy. Theres a lot of expense and manpower associated with organic weed control, said Forcella. This method, if practiced at the correct growth stages, could be a win against the never-ending onslaught of noxious weeds. n Crop Science Society of America connecting to potential customers. Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles “As long as you don’t have the end user (UAVs), are a hot ticket in Silicon Valley, but because they can’t use it, you’re basically U.S. government dithering over regulations missing a lot of the ecosystem,” says Thevoz. has given overseas companies a head-start in In Singapore, Garuda Robotics is already figuring out how best to exploit them. moving beyond just being a drone operator. Global spending on drones could add up “The drones are a means to get the data out of to close to $100 billion over the next decade, the sky,” says co-founder and CEO Mark Yong, with commercial uses - from farming and “but if you can’t process it you’ve not created filming to pipelines and parcels - accounting any value for the customer.” for around an eighth of that market, according While the company has been helping map to BI Intelligence. the boundaries of palm oil plantations in But for years, the Federal Aviation Malaysia, it has added the ability to calibrate Administration (FAA), the authority largely responsible for regulation in the United States, the drones’ cameras to measure moisture levels in individual trees. It’s now working with has dragged its feet, only last month issuing agronomists to figure out how to make sense draft rules on who can fly drones, how and of that thermal data to judge the health of where. It’s likely to be a year or more before trees and their likely yield. the regulations are in place - good news for Other projects include assembling companies operating outside the U.S. and real-time 3D maps of building sites to help looking to build a business around drones. construction schedules, monitoring and Sky-Futures, a British company that reducing algae blooms and keeping tabs on dominates the use of drones to collect packs of stray dogs using infrared cameras. and analyze inspection data for oil and All of this would be hard, if not impossible, gas companies, says its business soared under FAA regulations that limit drones flying 700 percent last year as the normally out of sight of the operator, or at night. conservative energy industry embraced the While regulation typically lags technology, new technology. Co-founder and operations no one’s betting against Silicon Valley director Chris Blackford said the company is dominating the industry in the long run. Last coupling drones with software and a better year, more than $100 million flowed into U.S. understanding of what works in the field, drone start-ups, according to CB Insights, giving Sky-Futures “a head-start over the U.S double 2013 levels. because we understand pretty intimately the “Let’s not kid ourselves,” said Philip Von problems facing the oil and gas market, and Meyenburg, who runs a drone operating how we can solve them with technology.” company out of Singapore. “They know what Looser regulations outside the U.S. have created pockets of innovation attracting ideas, they’re doing in the U.S.” And China, too, is in the game as hardware money and momentum, says Patrick Thevoz, prices fall rapidly. China’s DJI sells consumer co-founder and CEO of Swiss-based Flyability, grade drones for $500, making it hard for which builds drones inside a spherical cage companies producing lower volumes to justify that allows them to bump through doors, their higher prices. tunnels and forests without losing balance. “The challenge for all drone manufacturers Another British company, BioCarbon now is that we’re in a market that is constantly Engineering, hopes to speed up reforestation updating,” said Flyability’s Thevoz. by using drones to plant germinated seeds, and shares in New Zealand-based Martin n Jeremy Wagstaff, Reuters (AP) Aircraft trebled in the first few days after listing in Australia last month, on investor hopes for the personalized aircraft maker which is developing a UAV that could be used by the military, oil Wanted: and gas, mining and farming • Old Cars industries. • RV Motorhomes In Japan, the government is looking to fast track • Farm Machinery industry-friendly regulation • Irrigation Systems to give its drone business an • Any Type of edge. 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