wipers vs sprayers for pasture weed control

[greybeard]

I have seen a lot of mention of seed bank preservation, and for a couple years now, I have toyed with the idea of buying a weed wiper, but have yet to talk to anyone who has actually used one, other than a friend of mine in Kansas that swears by them for both pasture and in his wheat field. I have also been unable to find a single local distributor for them, which means I would have to either travel a ways or pay shipping to get one.

Most of my weeds quickly outgrow the height of the grass, so it would "seem" to be an ideal product--IF, it applies enough herbicide to do some good.

The advantages seem to be less chemical waste due to no drift.
Applies herbicide only on the weeds and not on the usable forage.

Disadvantage seems to be a slower travel speed needed.
Higher cost initially compared to a spray unit of comparable size.

I've read about them for a couple of years now, and they seem to be very popular in Great Britain and Australia, but not so much here in the US or Canada.
If you aren't familiar with them:
http://www.smuckermfg.net/Pages/WeedWipers.aspx
Anyone?

 

[dun]

We thought the wiper would be the solution too. Turns out not so much. I suppose it depends mostly on what weeds you are wiping. I found that unless you hit the weed from both sides that it doesn;t kill them. It stunts the snot out of one side and the weed just keeps growing except it's bent over. That was glyphosate on our main weeds of queen anns lace and thistle.
If you ever have a farmfest type ofshow thing in your area that could be a good place to pick one up. Frequently they'll sell the demo model that they hauled to it for a substantial discount just so thast they don;t have to haul it back. My weed wiper, sprayer and scale were all gotten that way. No freight just a short haul home.

 

[M5farm]

there were several field around us this year that were eat up with pig weed. he wiped them and witin 2 hours they were brown. i think he was using some type of gramoxone. home made rig on a front end loader 4" pvc and cotton rope and some deflectors on it.

 

[Bigfoot]

My dad had one years and years ago. As best I remember it didn't work that well. Perhaps the technology is better now.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Tried one didn't work well in tall bahia boom sprayers didn't work well for me due to so many tree's here.
Secondly had to fold them up to cross the creek everytime as my low water crossing was to narrow.
I ended up with a boomless for my enviroment 110 gallon tank. Neighbor built a 300 gallon tote on a small two wheel trailer with a boomless sprayer. I am looking it over pretty hard.

 

[wbvs58]

I had success with one on Pin rush (Juncas spp). I slashed the paddocks after the winter grazing and when the new growth of the rushes was high enough I wiped with Glyphosate twice at right angles. Some paddocks were over 50% rushes when I bought this place and now well under control. I have used it since without slashing and because the clumps have dead as well as live rushes, I find the glyphosate is not as well absorbed and will run down the stems and kill adjacent grass as well, definately was not as specific as after slashing.
Ken

 

[greybeard]

Looks like 2 "ok"s and 3 "not so good"s. If ya have to wipe it more than once or from 2 directions, that would seem to negate any savings in chemical waste from drift or spray applied to non target growth. I'm really wanting to try one, but then again.................the best lessons learned are those already learned by others. I'll have to consider this further................

 

[dun]

The wipers run from reasonable price http://qualitymetalworks.com/
to
rediculous http://weedproblems.com/gallery.php.

I have the cheaper one and the neighbor has the expensive one. I can;t tell that it works a couple of thousands doallars better then mine.

 

[1wlimo]

Looks like 2 "ok"s and 3 "not so good"s. If ya have to wipe it more than once or from 2 directions, that would seem to negate any savings in chemical waste from drift or spray applied to non target growth. I'm really wanting to try one, but then again.................the best lessons learned are those already learned by others. I'll have to consider this further................

You could add a good to that,

Used to cover a few hundred acres a year fro thistle with good effect. Using glyphosate, I got a good kill. The weed wiper had a metal deflector on the front that damaged the thistle pre application of the chemical and this made a big difference.