Convenience and efficiency drive DuPont herbicide delivery system

PrecisionPac herbicide system designed to offer Western Canada producers the amount of product they need when they need it

Posted: May 15, 2009

Imagine a vending machine for herbicides, but instead of giving you a standard container of product, it gives you exactly the amount of herbicide you need in your spraying operation. That's PrecisionPac in a nutshell.

Tailored for Western Canadian producers, PrecisionPac herbicides are delivered through a much-discussed new system from DuPont that allows producers to receive a customized amount and blend of product. Choosing from nine different herbicide blends, the retailer punches in the number of acres a producer needs to cover or the sprayer tank capacity and the specific blend the producer wants. The producer then receives a custom-packaged container with precisely the amount they need.

The desired result, says project lead Scott Hollick, is less waste and less management. "Western Canadian producers told us they were dealing with more acres, larger equipment and more workload," says Hollick. "They said they wanted more efficiency, less packaging, and something that was customized to their farms. PrecisionPac has been designed with those needs in mind."

No herbicide left behind. Reducing product waste is a key driver behind the PrecisionPac system, says Hollick. "It dispenses precisely the right amount of product to apply to a particular field or tank size. That means no leftover herbicide or part-loads and no more measuring or guesswork. On-site mixing errors can be reduced, as only the amount needed for a particular field or sprayer size arrives from the retailer. This also helps eliminate the potential for over or under applications."

Customized control. The system dispenses dry herbicides into a custom-packaged container which is then labelled with a job number that can be referenced to the specific grower or field and the exact acreage to be treated. The system holds up to six active ingredients that can be combined in various ratios to help meet a grower's agronomic requirements and tackle specific weed problems, says Hollick. "Growers told DuPont they wanted weed control options that could be customized by the weed spectrum of their various fields."

Designed to save time. PrecisionPac helps improve mixing efficiency, reducing time opening, handling and measuring product from several containers, says Hollick.

Stewardship a driver. Producers are under pressure today to minimize or even eliminate the amount of crop protection product they store on the farm. The PrecisionPac system helps eliminate long-term storage of unused product because producers only order the amount of product they need, says Hollick.

Ingredient options. There are nine PrecisionPac herbicides registered for use, including five new registrations. "Depending on the weed spectrum and other agronomic requirements, the retailer and the grower can select the blend that will provide the best value for that acre," says Hollick.

Value-added option. There is no additional cost for use of the PrecisionPac system, says Hollick. The costs for the products are based on DuPont's standard per-acre costs.

More information available

More information on the PrecisionPac system, including a list of participating retailers, is available at www.precisionpac.com.