CHEMIGATION TRAINING SCHEDULED ACROSS NRD

This year, hundreds of irrigators across the Lower Loup NRD will use their irrigation equipment to apply fertilizers and pesticides to their fields.

This year, hundreds of irrigators across the Lower Loup Natural Resources District will use chemigation to apply fertilizers and pesticides to their fields. Chemigation is the injection of agricultural chemicals into water flowing through an irrigation distribution system for application to land, crops, or both. Last year, in 2009, there were 2,278 chemigation permits issued across the Lower Loup NRD. Chemigators applied over 7,170,198 pounds of nitrogen fertilizer in the District.

With chemigation, the rate of application can be regulated and chemicals may be applied at the exact time needed by plants to produce maximum results. The actual handling of chemicals is reduced so operator exposure is minimized and the chance for spills is diminished.

Chemigation offers the irrigator numerous other advantages, such as in the application of nitrogen fertilizers. When chemigation is used, nitrate-leaching losses are reduced and the possibility for nitrate contamination of groundwater is reduced.

However, chemigation has its risks. The greatest of these is the potential for accidental groundwater contamination through backflow into the irrigation well. Backflow is the siphoning of water and chemicals back into the irrigation well when normal operation is interrupted. To avoid this contamination, the appropriate chemigation equipment and system must be set-up, operated and maintained. Without the right equipment and setup, a permit will be denied.

Before an irrigator can begin chemigation, state law says a permit must be obtained from the local Natural Resources District. Permit applications are available at the Lower Loup NRD District Headquarters in Ord or at the Natural Resources Conservation Service offices and University of Nebraska Extension offices in Albion, Broken Bow, Burwell, Columbus, Fullerton, Greeley, Loup City, Ord, and St. Paul.

State law also requires that a person utilizing chemigation be a certified applicator. The University of Nebraska-Extension has scheduled chemigation training courses across the NRD in the coming weeks. If you plan to apply chemicals, you must attend one of the courses and pass a written exam to be certified. Certification is good for four years, and then the irrigator is required to take a renewal course.

Chemigation training sessions will be held in the Lower Loup NRD on the following dates…

Monday, March15, 1:00 p.m., 4-H Bldg, Custer County Fairgrounds, Broken Bow

Monday, March 15, 1:00 p.m., Community Room, Platte County Courthouse, Columbus

Wednesday, March 17, 1:30 p.m., Casey’s Community Bldg, Fairgrounds, Albion

Thursday, March 25, 1:30 p.m., Extension Office, Valley County Fairgrounds, Ord

There is a $20 fee for initial certification or a $15 fee for re-certification training.

For more information on chemigation certification training, contact your local Extension office. For more information on obtaining a chemigation permit, contact the Lower Loup NRD.

This page last modified on 2/27/07.