27 January 2009

Count, count and count again. But do you know what?

Very small grains

Large field

Precise Vortis-sucking action 

Can you see it?

Give a scientist a few grains and he is busy for days 

The efficiency of an in-furrow granule application, in terms of proportion and spatial distribution of granules on the soil surface is sometimes needed to estimate possible exposure of birds and mammals. This is where you have to find a really small grain in a rather large field.
For this purpose an application has to be made in the field using typical large commercial application equipment. The granules would be applied together with the drilling of the relevant seeds. These small granules left on the soil surface will be searched and suction sampled in defined sampling areas. And this is where the fun starts.
Now the fun ends and the tedious work starts again.
The soil and granules sampled by Vortis-suction samples will the dried and sieved. The granules with the sieved earth will be assessed colorimetrically. 
For the assessment of weight a calibration curve has to be established and the number of granules found can be calculated from the resulting equation. 

For detailed information please contact: 

Silvio Knaebe (silvio.knaebe@eurofins-gab.com)

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