
Central West grower Andrew Gill sustained severe spray drift damage to his cotton. Photo Cotton Australia
A CENTRAL West New South Wales cotton grower has potentially sustained more than $500,000 in crop yield losses following recent incidents of off-target spray drift.
Grower Andrew Gill was not the only one to suffer yield losses with several reports of damage in an area near Narromine.
According to Cotton Australia, there were also several other severe cases reported in the Macquarie and Lachlan valleys, with minor to moderate damage in the Murray and Murrumbidgee valleys.
In Mr Gill’s case, about 130ha of his cotton crop has sustained substantial off-target spray damage, with little hope that the crop can be salvaged.
He believes the damage has been caused by the off-target spraying before Christmas of a phenoxy herbicide.
“I won’t know the real extent until the plant metabolises the chemical out of its system, but with the damage impacting at least six nodes, it represents a big loss,” Mr Gill said.
“I’m angry and what makes it worse is that we will never know where it came from.”
Cotton Australia policy advisor Doug McCollum said the damage is disappointing but overall, the lack of substantial damage across the cotton-growing regions indicated most people were doing the right thing.

Mr Gill reported damage to his crop following a suspected spray drift incident. Photo: Cotton Australia
“It is encouraging that most people are spraying according to the label and using best-practice spraying techniques,” Mr McCollum said.
“Everyone who applies agricultural chemicals must be qualified to do so, and it is critical that they have their equipment set up correctly and that they only spray when conditions are right.
“The cotton industry has been running extensive education and awareness campaigns in recent years, and we know that the majority of farmers are doing a great job as a result.
“Unfortunately though, we still see these cases of severe damage, and the positive result across the rest of the industry is cold comfort for those growers that are suffering significant damage to their crops.”
Mr McCollum said often the fault is not with the professional applicators and contractors whose job it is to apply agricultural products on the ground or in aerial applications.
“It can take just take one individual spraying without due consideration of the weather patterns, the potential for inversion layers, or the correct selection of spray equipment to destroy nearby crops, with cotton particularly sensitive to a range of herbicides.”
Mr Gill believes spray drift impacts on all in agriculture, with a united approach needed to solve the problem.
“I’m hosting a meeting on my farm so every stakeholder from agronomists, farmers, suppliers and contractors can see the damage on my property first-hand, and discuss how collectively and individually we can stop this happening again.”
Coton Australia urges farmers to map their activities on SataCrop, a mapping tool informing all stakeholders of the location of potentially sensitive crops, and use WAND towers, which can quickly detect hazardous conditions and inversions, enabling growers and contractors to spray according to the best conditions and in compliance with label requirements.
Source: Cotton Australia
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