The FMC 3RIVE 3D System has had a season in use and our own Chuck Zimmerman caught up with Rick Ekins, FMC, while at Trade Talk to get an update.
“We started this spring with the first 36 applicators installed on farms. The biggest things are you have such a low volume of water and you’re able to apply an 8-oz rate of Capture 3RIVE 3D in 32-oz of water. A single fill is covering up to 500 acres,” Rick Ekins, FMC. “It’s the speed, the simplicity of a central fill system, the fact that you only have to fill up once per day, and that you can strip off a lot of heavy equipment down to the 160 gallons of product. That’s what has been really appealing about the 3RIVE 3D System.”
The basic unit is a 130 gallon water tank and a 30 gallon concentrate tank. The manifold takes the water and concentrate and creates a 3D expanding formulation that allows growers to take a very low volume of water across an acre. The systems have been tested in a wide variety of environments across the corn belt on 16-, 32-, and 48-row corn planters. They’ve also tested planter speeds from 5-10mph and have maintained accurate placement with the varied speeds.
3RIVE 3D systems adapt to most major planter brands; some may require more adaptation. In spring 2016, systems will be capable of tying into an existing precision application system, currently 3RIVE 3D has it’s own operating system. Currently, Capture 3RIVE 3D is the first product approved for the 3RIVE 3D system and offers insect control in corn.
There are about 60 3RIVE 3D Systems available for placement currently; FMC is looking for growers who may be interested in implementing 3RIVE 3D technology should head to www.fmc.com.
To hear more of Rick’s interview: [wpaudio url=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/zimmcomm/nafb-15-fmc-eking-thrive3d.mp3″ text=”Interview with Rick Ekins, FMC”]
