Happy Wednesday!
Grab your coffee and settle in, because today's edition has a bit of everything: a spray drift fine that should make every applicator's stomach drop, a wind speed lesson nobody wants to learn the hard way, and a two-century-old story about the guy who invented the fertilizer sitting in your shed right now.
Let's get into it.
🗑️ The Big Bin: Illinois Farmer Hit With $250,000 Spray Drift Fine
What happened. An Illinois farmer named Mark Eigsti is facing a $250,000 fine after spraying Glory 4L (metribuzin) and Trifluralin 4EC near a school in Morton, Illinois, back in April.
Wind gusts hit 19 mph during the application, blowing past the label limits on both products.
More than 200 people, including kids at an outdoor school fundraiser, were in the area at the time.
Why it happened. The math is brutal. Illinois can fine an applicator $1,250 per person when five or more people are exposed to an off-label application.
With 200-plus people at that fundraiser, the number snowballed fast. Investigators later found pesticide residue on 12 out of 14 tested items, everything from playground equipment to unwashed kids' clothing.
Eigsti has appealed, and the first hearing landed today.
What it means for the farm gate. This one's a wind speed problem, not a chemical problem, and that should sting a little for anyone who has ever eyeballed the breeze instead of checking a gauge.