Vermilion, Alta. (Rural Roots Canada) – Farmers spend a considerable amount of time and money choosing the right crop protection products, but a Lakeland College researcher says that the water used to apply them also deserves equal attention.

Dr. Balwinder Kumar, a cereal research scientist at Lakeland College, says water hardness, pH, dissolved mineral content, and suspended particles can affect the performance of certain crop protection products, particularly the performance of herbicides and fungicides.

“Water is more than just a carrier. Its chemical properties can influence how some crop protection products behave in the spray tank and perform in the field,” Kumar explains.

Rather than guessing at water quality, Kumar suggests testing to identify possible issues within the water before spraying.

“So, the main crux is like, don’t guess water quality; send it to the lab or use strip pads that are available in the market, buy those strip pads for hardness, pH and then test,” Dr. Kumar says.

RELATED: BCRC: Test Stock Water and Reduce Worry

Kumar says water quality can vary considerably among municipal supplies, wells and dugouts, potentially influencing the effectiveness of certain crop protection products and resulting in differences in crop response, even when the same products are applied.

Kumar hopes to expand research into water quality to help producers make informed decisions about the crop protection products and the quality of water that they are using on crops. His future goal is to help producers improve spray performance and maximize the value of their crop protection investments.

He says there are billions of dollars spent on all of these products; he believes his research would help farmers get the most out of them.

“They should get every penny back which they spent on these products, and the idea is to bring input costs down.”