Editor's note: This post was intended to go up yesterday, but some last-second internet troubles delayed it to today,
I'm about wrapped up here at Syngenta. I've been all over the different buildings, meeting with everyone from chemists to packaging experts.
My last interview was with Dan Kidder, Ph.D., research scientist, application technology for Syngenta. "You were in formulation, you saw a bunch of test tubes and beakers," Kidder told me. "Well, in here, you'll see a bunch of sprayers and spreaders."
Kidder's job is to examine how effectively products are dispersed in the field. He has tools to examine everything from how a liquid "blooms" (spreads) in a 1-gallon container to how it disperses in a 500-gallon sprayer.
It's Kidder's job to make sure the stuff being sprayed on the first fairway is the exact same stuff being sprayed at the end of the tank. "It's pretty simple to put something in a tank and mix it," Kidder told me. "But Syngenta puts in the research to see how each product disperses in the field."
Kidder told me a frequent problem they have is when customers mix their products with a generic. The testing has been done on Syngenta's formula, but not on the generic. So if the one product doesn't mix right, the superintendent will see an over-application at the beginning of the tank, and an under-application at the end of the tank.
Or, perhaps they have a granular lawn and garden product... they've seen that when the product is spread by a professional, the professional tends to walk faster, while the home owner walks slower. To get the same results, they need to determine how to formulate a product that's effective when spread at 2.5 mph, and a similar product that's spread at 3 mph.
So I'm spreading the word that spreading these products isn't as simple as it seems.
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