April 2003

Taking the Bounce Out of Spraying
Affix® helps make herbicides more effective by keeping the spray material on target.

Brian and Wesley Foster, who farm 4,500 acres of corn, soybeans and wheat at Columbia, N.C., recognize the importance of keeping herbicides on target.

“It’s not unusual for us to have windy conditions when we’re spraying weeds,” Wesley notes. “And we have crops that aren’t resistant to herbicides that are planted just a few feet away from Roundup Ready soybeans. When we spray Roundup over-the-top, we want to be sure it gets only on the soybeans and stays there.”

To get that assurance the brothers, who farm separately but share equipment and labor, include Affix® in their spray mixtures. Affix is the trade name that Southern States uses for a patented adjuvant that’s added to the spray tank to improve the performance of herbicides such as Roundup Weathermax, Touchdown and other glyphosate products as well as Banvel, Clarity and Marksman.

Affix is a combination of ammonium salts and a guar-based polymer that increases deposition, retention and plant uptake of postapplied herbicides. It is manufactured for Southern States by Intech Agro-Products of McCordsville, Ind.
Ron Perry, a regional agronomist and Certified Crop Advisor for Southern States in North Carolina, says Affix increases the viscosity of the spray solution, creating a larger droplet size that is less susceptible to straying from the target. More of the spray hits the targeted weed and stays on its leaf surface from where it’s absorbed into the plant.

TO GET A GOOD MIX 1. Fill tank one third to one half full of water and begin agitation. 2. Slowly add the required amount of Affix and allow the product to dissolve completely. 3. Continue filling the spray tank with water and add herbicides as directed on the label. (Affix is packaged in 9- and 45-pound bags and is mixed at the rate of 9 to 14 pounds per 100 gallons of water.)

“Farmers want to make sure the chemical gets on and stays on the targeted weed and doesn’t drift onto nearby sensitive crops,” Perry says. He cites research at Ohio State University showing that Affix produces a more uniform spray-droplet size with a higher retention rate (over 30%) and increased penetration properties.

“We like to say that Affix takes the bounce out of the spray particle,” Perry says. He reports that sales of Affix have increased steadily since the co-op began making it available to its customers.
He adds that the ammonium sulfate component of the adjuvant reduces the effects of hard water minerals such as calcium magnesium, sodium and iron, which can inhibit chemical performance.

Gardner Smith, Southern States field representative at Grimesland, N.C., says applicators in his area basically use Affix in all applications of glyphosate and other labeled pesticides. “We’re in an area with a lot of wind, and farmer

s grow several different crops,” Smith explains. “Affix reduces drift and assures good coverage of targeted weeds.”
The Fosters use Affix in their applications of Roundup Ultra and Extreme (a combination of Roundup and Pursuit) on soybeans, and of Accent and Banvel on corn. They use an 80-foot-wide spray boom on their tractor to ground-apply all of their herbicides.

“This is our third season to use Affix,” Brian reports. “We’ve been nothing but pleased with it. We were using a liquid product before. Affix [a dry, water-soluble material] is much easier to handle. Just add it to the water in the tank, and it virtually mixes itself.

“It’s cheap insurance,” he adds. “It’s worth it for drift control alone. But the real benefit comes from makin
ag chemicals work better.