Crop protection manufacturer UPL will begin supplying its straight sugar beet herbicide product range of metamitron, phenmedipham and ethofumesate in cans compatible with the EasyConnect closed transfer sprayer filling system (CTS).
“UPL has decided to embrace EasyConnect,” explains James Kennedy, head of business development for UPL UK.
UPL is starting its rollout of the EasyConnect system with sugar beet herbicides because its Sandbach manufacturing site, near Crewe, produces all its sugar beet herbicides for Europe. In addition to the straight products, the firm plans to introduce CTS compatibility for co-formulated products such as Volcano (ethofumesate + metamitron) as soon as possible. “Having the factory on our doorstep helps us to coordinate the rollout closely,” he adds.
The move is a step towards encouraging farmers to adopt Easyconnect more widely, with many farmers reluctant to invest in a system when few pesticides are available in compatible cans.
“It is a chicken and egg scenario. Farmers won’t embrace the sprayer adaptation without the products, and manufacturers might not produce the products for Easyconnect if few sprayers are equipped.
“We’ve decided to just go for it. The more products we can push out with Easyconnect caps on, the more farmers will decide to invest in the technology.”
James sees three key advantages for farmers in using Easyconnect. It reduces operator exposure to pesticides by around 95%, there is a greatly reduced risk of environmental contamination when filling a sprayer, and it is much more time efficient.
“We know sprayers are getting bigger and spray windows are reducing due to the weather. The less time spent filling up means more time spraying.”
“This is another reason we chose sugar beet herbicides to begin our Easyconnect rollout. They are applied at a time of year when sprayer capacity is most stretched, and tank mixes can be quite large, which takes much longer without a CTS,” he says.
Farmers are reminded that this season there will be existing stock in circulation that is not CTS compatible. All new production will be, and the boxes will have Easyconnect branded tape on so that they are easy to identify.
