MagGrow anyone?

[DanniAgro]

Just been looking in the latest Farmers Guide, and see mention of the MagGrow system of spray drift reduction. The makers claim a two thirds reduction if you use a mixture of manifolds through which the spray flows along with magnets in the booms just before the nozzles.
My main thought was just how much does it cost? The blurb makes no mention, and I note the total lack of words like "reasonable cost" or "economic". The cynic in me suggests a high cost of purchase...
So has anyone taken the plunge, or even seen it in action?

 

[Chalky]

Its an Irish system is it not? Remember seeing it in the press a few years ago, but seems to have gone quiet since. Had funding from some body or other for some work,

 

[DanniAgro]

That's right, the head office is the Irish Republic I think. But anyway it seems like a clever idea that's going nowhere unless the owners can generate some publicity for their idea. The claims they make for the system are interesting if true, using a magnetic field in the stream of the spray liquid to make the spray droplets attracted to the target.
As usual it all depends on the cost, which they seem very tight lipped about.

 

[i dont belief it]

Who knows a farmer that can generate some publicity for their idea. How much publicity has Horsch had on this forum over the last few years, but did anyone rush out to buy Bridgeway after the trial?
If its as good as they claim, someone on here should have heard about it and by the lack of comments it seems very hush hush.

 

[Brisel]

That does assume that the manufacturers read the forum.

I don’t quite get how passing the spray mix past a magnet makes any difference. Electrostatic sprayers were going to be the future but most of the spray ended up stuck to the sprayer itself. There are a few manufacturers of magnets for softening water but these have never been proven to do anything significant.

 

[DanniAgro]

That does assume that the manufacturers read the forum.

I don’t quite get how passing the spray mix past a magnet makes any difference. Electrostatic sprayers were going to be the future but most of the spray ended up stuck to the sprayer itself. There are a few manufacturers of magnets for softening water but these have never been proven to do anything significant.

Good point, as I can remember the first time electrostatic sprayers were suggested, in the early 80s IIRC, and the makers proposed that there was a connection from the sprayer to the earth to complete the circuit. Probably a strap like some car owners used to install on their cars to stop static build up, but MagGrow seem to have forgotten that...

 

[Brisel]

The use of magnets suggests no circuit is required. I see Harper Adams were involved in testing. Has anyone else seen this system? @phil ? @CORK ?

 

[DanniAgro]

When say the spray is negatively charged then the plants have to be positive in order to attract the droplets. If there's no charge difference the droplets have no obvious target, and they end up as you said sticking on any nearby object, like the sprayer. That's why I thought there must be a way of transferring the charge difference between droplet and target.
Amazing that the firm hasn't tried to publicise the system more at events during the last summer. Looking at their website shows they have done a lot of work with the University of Dublin to develope it.

 

[CORK]

The use of magnets suggests no circuit is required. I see Harper Adams were involved in testing. Has anyone else seen this system? @phil ? @CORK ?

I haven’t looked at it closely. Off memory I think cost was prohibitive when I read up on it.

 

[Brisel]

I haven’t looked at it closely. Off memory I think cost was prohibitive when I read up on it.

Thanks. Just trying to understand how it works. Or not. They’ve patented it so there must be some points of difference.

Having looked at the videos on their website I can’t help feeling that they are marketing this to folk who might not be aware of low drift nozzles and reduced spray volumes. They claim this works in irrigation too. I’ll do some more digging on this when I’ve got some time.

 

[DanniAgro]

I haven’t looked at it closely. Off memory I think cost was prohibitive when I read up on it.

Prohibitive - that figures.

 

[Alienworkshop227]

We were quoted 35k. They have a trial deal where we can make a 3000 down payment for install and uninstall if necessary so they made it fairly attractive but I really wanted to know from someone else before we did anything at all. They’ve been trying to sell me on this for 3 years now and the trial deal is the first opportunity to see for myself. Has anyone had any update in the time since the last post?

 

[DanniAgro]

That's about what I was expecting, but it's still a ridiculously high figure.

 

[Alienworkshop227]

Yea I’ve turned them down for three years straight because of it. I asked them this time “ok ok so that all sounds great… what have y’all done about the price?” And that’s when the down payment option came out. they make some extremely bold claims and if what they’re saying pans out even a little, then the $35,000 will be paid back in no time flat. I guess if no one else chimes in and we give it a shot I’ll report back. He gave us a few farmers around the southern US that have bought into the system but we haven’t reached out to them yet.

 

[snarling bee]

I'd want to see it working or some verified independant testing before even spending 10% of the price. You can buy a lot of fancy nozzles for that sort of money. FFS you could even buy a decent SH sprayer.