Peak farming bodies and a Gunnedah agronomist are urging local crop growers to take care when spraying their crops. The National Farmers Federation (NFF),Grain Growers Limited and Jim Hunt of HuntAg are calling on farmers across the state to be aware of their chemical spray drifting onto neighbouring properties potentially causing crop damage. Gunnedah agronomist Jim Hunt said farmers need to take care when spraying their crops. “We advise growers not to use herbicides such as 2-4-D under these conditions,” Mr Hunt said. “It’s always important for growers to be careful and diligent with sprays especially near cotton and we strongly advocate that people use anti-spray drift technology when spraying.” NFF farming systems committee chair Chris Groves said spray drift can impact more than just the farmer applying it. “Farmers need to remind themselves that their actions may inadvertently affect their neighbours as well as the broader agricultural community,” Mr Groves said. “This season we are seeing the need for a chemical application to fallow paddocks due to the early summer rainfall in most cropping areas. “This practice allows cropping operators to conserve moisture and limit nutrient usage by weeds.” Related Stories: Mr Groves has called on spray unit operators to be aware of inversion layers in the atmosphere and their potential to carry fine spray droplets for many kilometres. “When a drift occurs, sometimes damage can occur as far as 50-70kms down the road. “Off-target damage causes losses to not only the affected producers; but has the potential to cause losses to whole communities." Mr Hunt said sorghum growers are also at risk of spray drift affecting their crops. “It often gets forgotten as it’s not quite as an expensive crop as cotton but their are risks to sorghum crops as well,” Mr Hunt said. “Roundup and roundup based sprays are often used on cotton and can be really damaging to sorghum. “Every year you see some sorghum crops get some spray drift from a cotton crop and that’s why it’s important for everyone to be careful when spraying”. Nick Bryant of Grain Growers Limited said farmers had a range of online spray management tools at their disposal. "GrainGrowers develops and supplies three very effective online spray management tools including SprayWise Decisions for Nufarm, Cotton Map for Cotton Australia and also ProductionWise,” Mr Bryant said. "SprayWise Decisions provides hour-by-hour forecasts for spray conditions up to seven days in advance and in a choice of locations. “Cotton Map, an initiative of Cotton Australia, Nufarm, Cotton Research and Development Corporation and Grains Research and Development Corporation and hosted by GrainGrowers, is available for free and identifies the location of nearby cotton fields while ProductionWise can plan and record specific spray applications on any chosen paddock.” Mr Groves said taking steps to minimise the risk of spray operations damaging neighbouing crops was just the right thing to do. “We all need to look out for each other in the farming community and this is just one more way in which we need to help each other by being more conscious about how our actions can affect others.” Spray drift prevention tips: