Iron affecting ag chems?

Hjwise

Member
Mixed Farmer
I’ve recently built an iron filter for my pig unit. It’s supposed to increase the efficacy of water medications, as the iron particles bond to the medicine. Does iron cause the same problems with ag chems? If so, I should be using filtered water for spraying. This would involve buying another tank.
 

Hjwise

Member
Mixed Farmer
A double whammy then... our bore water is hard and high iron. Maybe better harvesting it off the roof - but that’s a bit of a faff.
 

Grass And Grain

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Yorks
Someone might sau differently, but ifvmy memory serves me correctly, went to a Desangosse meeting, speaker was a water chemist. He mentioned iron (and maybe Mg as well). Even suggested using a steel storage tank might be a bad idea.

Brown borehole water = need water conditioner. I'd ring desangosse. They'll be trying to sell water conditioner, but will advise what the problem is, and if I've remembered correctly.
 

B'o'B

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Rutland
Someone might sau differently, but ifvmy memory serves me correctly, went to a Desangosse meeting, speaker was a water chemist. He mentioned iron (and maybe Mg as well). Even suggested using a steel storage tank might be a bad idea.

Brown borehole water = need water conditioner. I'd ring desangosse. They'll be trying to sell water conditioner, but will advise what the problem is, and if I've remembered correctly.
DeSangosse man suggested that the same might be an issue with my old aluminium tanker that stores our spray water.
NIAB tested it and said the water was no different coming out of the tank after being in it all winter to when it went in from the mains.
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
I also went to a DeSangosse adjuvant meeting with a few other TFF members. I would think that Iron would behave in a similar way to Calcium. I'd get it tested. I would hope that you have a separate tank for filling the sprayer anyway.

You may be better off treating the water in the spray tank which means another dedicated tank. Filters won't remove cations in solution. You can just treat each tank load of susceptible pesticides with X Change which will sort the problem.

1615742639675.png

1615742892455.png
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
Also whack a large amount onto the bill
I used to use bore water did some sums on x change and converted to mains water fairly quickly

0.25 l/ha X Change/Aquascope at £4/l soon adds up. Still better than losing 10-40% of your chemical to lockup. Did you test the mains water? It's quite soft here, near Darlington. If so, who did you get to do it? Lancrop? Cawood/NRM?
 

Hjwise

Member
Mixed Farmer
I also went to a DeSangosse adjuvant meeting with a few other TFF members. I would think that Iron would behave in a similar way to Calcium. I'd get it tested. I would hope that you have a separate tank for filling the sprayer anyway.

You may be better off treating the water in the spray tank which means another dedicated tank. Filters won't remove cations in solution. You can just treat each tank load of susceptible pesticides with X Change which will sort the problem.

View attachment 947352
View attachment 947354

the sprayer tank is separate from pig supply but would need to be much larger if filling from the filter. The mains water is hard, but I must admit I haven’t compared it to the bore yet.
 

jonnieboy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
North Yorkshire
0.25 l/ha X Change/Aquascope at £4/l soon adds up. Still better than losing 10-40% of your chemical to lockup. Did you test the mains water? It's quite soft here, near Darlington. If so, who did you get to do it? Lancrop? Cawood/NRM?
I took a sample of the bore water to a Desangosse meeting and they used their paper test and it went off the scale so we used same test on the mains and it was a lot better.
 
i would think that an iron tank has a very low risk of adding iron to the water due to the small proportion of the surface area of the tank to the volume

water that comes for iron stone land would be the issue
although the limestone and ironstone layers can be impermiable

water from her is a blend with bore hole and rutland water so is usually only medium hardness
i use aquascope with many herbicides glyphosate su s ect
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 77 43.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 62 35.0%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 28 15.8%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 4 2.3%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,285
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top