An annual competition to find and reward Australia's best farm spray operator was launched this week by leading crop protection company, Syngenta, and Rural Press Ltd, publisher of
FarmOnline.
A study tour to the United Kingdom and a spray prize pack valued at $15,000 awaits the winner, who will be announced during this year's Ag-Quip field days at Gunnedah, North West NSW, on August 18-20.
This week advertisements will start appearing in Rural Press Ltd publications inviting farmers and spray contractors to fill out a questionnaire to enter the inaugural SPRAY Awards. (SPRAY stands for Sustainable, Productive, Responsible Applicator of the Year).
All entries will receive a 12-month subscription to Syngenta's Agricast weather and spray window forecast website.
All correct entries will progress to the second judging stage in May and June.
The State judging will be held in June and July and will include on-farm assessments.
The national winner will be selected from the five State finalists - NSW-ACT, Victoria-Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland-Northern Territory.
Ben Miles, Syngenta Australasia's marketing head, said the competition would showcase best practice in the application of chemicals across the whole range of crops which would provide recognition of the top operators and inspire others to adopt more efficient methods of applying sprays.
He said farm chemicals were a vital tool for modern agriculture but they needed to be applied as carefully and efficiently as possible to reduce waste (and money) and ensure their use didn’t impact on neighbouring crops and the environment.
"Employing best practice application strategies will really help growers and spray contractors to get the most out of their investment – we want to reward this behaviour," he said.
Syngenta had been running a similar competition in the UK for some years with great success and enthusiastic participation by spray operators.
Grant Cochrane, chief executive of Rural Press's Australasian Agricultural Publishing division, said the awards would not only identify the nation's top farm sprayers but also highlight their winning practices and methods.
Jason Sabeeney, Syngenta's technical services manager, said Australian growers could make their crop protection investment go 60pc further by focusing on best practice spray application.
Syngenta trials had revealed that only 40pc of the overall performance of a crop protection product could be attributed to the product itself, with about 60pc coming down to correct spray timing, equipment setup and nozzle selection.
Syngenta is a world-leading agribusiness with more than 24,000 employees in over 90 countries dedicated to the company's vision of bringing plant potential to life.
With an annual commitment of about $US800 million to research and development, along with about 2000 R&D specialists worldwide, Syngenta has a high-quality portfolio of leading crop protection chemistry and seeds as well as a rich pipeline of new products and registrations, Mr Miles said.
The Rural Press newspapers and magazines participating in the SPRAY awards are The Land, Queensland Country Life, Farm Weekly, Stock Journal, Stock and Land, North Queensland Register, Australian Farm Journal, Good Fruit and Vegetables, GrapeGrowers and Vignerons, Australian Dairyfarmer and the Katherine Times.
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