Deliver plant protection where it matters most

About 70% of what is applied through conventional spraying is wasted, says Gary Wickham. As a founding member and CEO of MagrowTec, Wickham is part of a team that took an innovative concept — magnetic drift reduction technology — and introduced it as a solution to improve spray coverage.

Nearly five years since he learned of the technology, Jerry Brightbill is sold.

“I’m more of a numbers cruncher than a farmer,” says the Texas producer, who also operates South Plains Precision Ag. “I want to know to the penny what it costs us to do things.”

Launched in 2000, South Plains Precision Ag was born on the Brightbill family farm in Plainview, Texas, because Brightbill wanted to better understand where the inputs they purchased were actually going and how much good they were doing. 

After much research, Brightbill found no local dealers sold equipment that made products accountable. Realizing he and his late brother Randy might be able to help other farmers, the company was created.

“I’m always looking for technologies that will cut our costs and increase our productivity,” Brightbill says. “And if it won’t work on my dirt, I’m not going to ask you to use it on your dirt.”

As a cotton grower, he says it’s not unusual to make, on average, eight trips across a field spraying herbicide, growth regulators, and other harvest aids. About five years ago, Brightbill heard about the MagrowTec concept.

“I had experienced a similar result using an electrostatic sprayer in the 1990s, so I understood the principle behind it,” he says. “The problem with the technology from the 1990s was it required a lot of maintenance while the Magrow is maintenance-free.”

That original concept of using magnetic technology to more effectively spray pesticides was developed by Florida inventor Ted Lenhardt. 

“From Ted’s extensive research, he knew that existing pesticide-spraying technologies for crops were a compromise between coverage and drift control,” says Wickham. 

Intrigued by Lenhardt’s work, Wickham, along with David Moore, decided to invest in developing the basic idea. 

“Using a fine droplet size provides more uniform coverage,” explains Wickham. 

“Besides using less inputs and water, you generate less waste by minimizing pesticide runoff to the soil and water.”

However, using a fine droplet size while trying to maximize drift control is a key challenge for conventional drift-reduction technologies because fine droplets take longer to fall out of the air and are harder to control.

This is where the Magrow spraying technology steps in. 

It uses patented and proprietary technology for droplet formation that yields superior spray-drift reduction and spray-coverage performance.

“Our customers are seeing two core benefits: 70% drift reduction and at least 20% to 40% improved coverage, depending on the crop, along with significant reduction in water usage (up to 50%),” says Wickham.

Magrow consists of manifolds and rods that utilize permanent rare earth magnets. This alters the fluid properties, which impact the spray profile characteristics and adhesion properties. 

Also, the system has no moving parts, is easy to install and maintain, and can be fitted to a new or existing crop sprayer. 

A typical 80-foot sprayer requires a minimum of six main magnet housings, one boom arm magnet housing per boom section, and one nozzle adapter per nozzle. The cost is about $30,000 with a return on investment of about six to 12 months, according to MagrowTec. 

Launched in 2013 and based in Dublin, Ireland, MagrowTec has developed a patented, proprietary technology that significantly reduces waste associated with conventional pesticide spray applications and delivers plant protection products where they matter the most. 

“My second year running Magrow, I reduced water and chemical usage by 25%,” Brightbill says. “That saved me around $100,000. That’s real money.”  

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