Vital information at the touch of button — that’s what the RRXtend Spray App offers to farmers and applicators and, in 2019, this tool will have newly expanded features.
According to Ty Witten, director, North American Crop Protection Strategy for Bayer Crop Science, nearly 25,000 people have utilized the free mobile RRXtend Spray App since it was launched in early 2018.
“We are committed to providing farmers with the training, education and resources they need to be successful. The RRXtend Spray App was designed to provide a planning and resource tool while assisting users achieve successful, on-target application with the Roundup Ready Xtend Crop System®,” Witten says.
Since its inception, the app has provided location-specific weather forecasts, digital record-keeping capabilities and educational resources for farmers and applicators who use the Roundup Ready Xtend Crop System.
“For 2019, we’ll offer multi-day extended forecast to help farmers identify favorable weather conditions to help plan spray applications. Those hourly forecasts will continue to include important data like wind speed and direction, humidity and inversion risk probability,” Witten says.
Also new in 2019, the RRXtend Spray app will shade hours in the forecast tool one hour after sunrise and two hours before sunset, to reinforce grower awareness around application timing. When the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) extended the label registration for Bayer’s XtendiMax® herbicide with VaporGrip ® Technology and other dicamba products in Oct. 2018, they set new application hour requirements to further minimize applications during increased inversion potential.
“Also, the record keeping feature has been updated to comply with EPA label changes. Users can create, organize and store detailed application records as part of their efforts to comply with the mandatory federal record keeping requirements,” Witten says.
He notes that the app will also now generate a pop-up notification if the user is located in a county identified as a Pesticide Use Limitation Area by the EPA. The RRXtend Spray App will then direct the user to the EPA’s Endangered Species Protection Bulletin website.
Other important features of the RRXtend Spray App include system information, educational and training videos, lists of approved tank mixes and nozzles, plus much more.
The RRXtend Spray App can be downloaded for free from the App Store or Google Play.