An opinion piece from cotton grower Bernie Bierhoff of Rowena NSW in FarmOnline:
"Talk to any cotton grower, and it won't take long for the conversation to turn to WAND: a network of 100 inversion profiling towers that could make spray drift a thing of the past.
"Stretching from Emerald in QLD to the Victorian border, WAND towers identify, in real time, whether a hazardous inversion is present, helping operators to inform their decision to spray in accordance with label requirements - and in a way that minimises off-target impacts on neighbouring crops.
"Over 2000 cotton and grain growers and spray operators have already signed on, keen to explore how they can claw back more control over the complex decision of when not - or, more critically, when - to spray.
"Until now, working out if an inversion is present has come down to guesswork. Visual cues like fog and dust all help to make it an educated guess. But it's still just a guess.
"And with 48 per cent of cotton growers reporting spray drift damage to CRDC in 2023, it's evident that we aren't always getting it right.
"WAND is a great tool, and a credit to CRDC, GRDC and Goanna Ag who've put it in the hands of growers. But it will only be a game changer if we all get behind it - and we all make the cultural change needed to prioritise safe spraying."
> Read more via FarmOnline.
