I'm helping someone plant trees along their property line. On the other side of the property line is a farm field. The ag field is on the west side of the property line. Do you foresee issues trying to grow trees in such a spot?

How far from the crop field line will the trees be and what type of trees? Some drift can go a ways, some spray has more harmful affects than others, and some trees are affected more than others.

Most commercial applicators today use many devices to curtail or lessen wind drift of chemicals. There are formulas that are added to the tank mixes, there are drift retardant products and better nozzles and also drop lines putting the product closer to the ground and still covering the ground they are s praying. Also there are wind level measurements that will cause applicators to not spray during certain wind speeds. One reason why many apply very early in the AM or even evenings when many times there is less wind. Modern day chemicals are applied hat much lower levels of chemical. but are more volitile and thus caution is important and also the use of the modern tools and technology to lower drift. Many times the outside rounds or 4 rows around the edge of the field are not sprayed which lessens drift issues as well. The person planting the trees can also talk with the farmer accross the fence line and alert him to what he is doing or planning to do. The person planting the trees can also choose to set back his trees from the fence line and have some grass type vegetation along the field edge as well.

Bryce

In today's litigious society farmers and applicators have had to really take a long hard look at drift and they've gone to great lengths to reduce the possibility. Just recently I read that dicamba has been more or less pulled from the market for that reason.

I would suggest opening a line of communication with the neighbor. But use caution just as we trappers can be a little thin-skinned when folks want to talk about what we do farmers can be even more so.

Most farmers hate trees along their fields. I got into it with the farmer who does not own the field, but farms it along my property. I planted a line of saw-tooth oak seedlings on my property line that most didn't make after he sprayed. He told me I didn't have any business planting trees that close to his crops. About 5 rows deep in his field along my property he has problems raising a crop there and will have for a few years due to a Pramitol spillage I "accidentally" had late one night

Good info so far, thanks.
The trees would be probably 15 feet from the edge of the crops.
Haven't decided on the type of tree yet..that is perhaps to be determined once more is known about the possible risk herbicide drift could have.
The landowner mentioned his plan to the farmer & didn't sence any animosity.

I had to laugh at the word curtail, if you know chemicals you’ll get it, but yeah most chemicals today don’t drift bad and kill trees, the old command days are gone.

planting a spruce tree 15 feet away from the line should be no problem, it's when your neighbor plants a tree directly on the line and thinks nothing of the fact that the branches will be on the neighbors land!!!!!

I loose trees and stuff in the garden from drift. I lost the entire garden one year. I can smell the spry from inside my house while they fog the fields around me. I have talked to the farmer and he say turn it into my insurance and walks off. He likes to spray. He could care less and just sees my tree rows as something else to farm around. I have 20 acres and the garden is close to the house. The house sits centered east and west and about 100 feet from the south border. I would guess the closest crop is 120 feet from the garden. The spray seems hardest on crab apple trees and the garden. So I say drift can be a problem.

My understanding is that if I spray something I am responsible for any negative effects caused by drift

Technology today makes sprayers way more efficient.
If I was spraying I would want the product to get on what I wanted it too, not drift off and cause me to have to use more and increase my cost

I don't farm but I have been around some, a few that were multi million dollar operations.

I would not plant trees that would extend over the property line with their canopy myself but you own every inch of land that you own and should be able to plant a tree anywhere on it

I lease my fields out to a local farmer and have no issues. There are either planted pines or planted hard mast trees in my foodplots that I've cut off from the existing fields along all of the field edges. At most I've seen 2-4' of 'overspray' from where the field would stop. In a couple of the foodplots, I've planted Cave-N-Rock switchgrass right up to the line between the field and the plot and haven't had any issues. I am more concerned when I spray with my 55 gallon boom sprayer than when he brings out the big stuff.

We also have a relationship in which he doesn't want to lose my lease.

Call the farmer and tell him what you’re doing and you’d appreciate it if he watched out for them.

Ask about Dicamba herbicide on beans. Most are very quiet about that. And yes it is only supposed to be applied morning or evening here but some could care less. And yes more and more farmers think their property extends beyond their property line.

No
Never heard of a farmer spraying large amounts of a woody type vegetarian herbicide into a already established field.

I live in Iowa. I used to be a certified pesticide applicator in my previous life. The laws in Iowa are pretty simple and easy to understand. - If you drift, you are responsible. That makes it very simple when it comes to deciding if you are going to spray that field.

It’s the applicator that is responsible for the application of the herbicide and they know it. Strict guidelines control when and how to apply. They pay the fines. It’s an effective reminder.

I lost a peach tree and had another one badly damaged, just off of the right away, when an airplane sprayed the field across the street.

Keith

ALE,
Not if it will drift, but how far.

I do coffee with some farmers and they tell me stories that you wouldn't believe on how far they have seen drift damage from the original application point.

I doubt it. I grow tomato's like that and they are more sensitive than trees. Some years I get hit though. The problem I have is they call the chemical place to spray, the farmer doesn't do it, and then who knows what yahoo is in the spray truck.

They don't make money by having a lot of spray being carried away by the wind though, chemicals are expensive. They put a lot of thought into the spray pattern, nozzle, pressure and such.

Last year I wanted to be upset bc they sprayed right up against my garden with like no buffer at all but I can't blame them for that. I lost a couple of plants but it really wasn't any big deal.

I surely wouldn't worry about trees, especially after seeing how close they got to my matters.

Personally I wouldn't worry about it unless you have some known super sensitive special tree of some kind.

They are spraying for like broad leaf weeds, not fence rows with trees and shrubs when they are spraying the field so the concentration is light compared to what you need to take trees out but I'm sure it can happen.