The Rural Voice, 1993-10, Page 16The
"Pellet
Pro"
• The new alternative fuel stove
• Burns corn or wood pellets
• High Efficiency
• Thermostat Controlled
• Requires No Chimney
• Gets up to 55,000 BTU of
Environmentally Friendly Heat
— SALES REPRESENTATIVES —
Don Fluney Welding
R. R. 6, SHELBURNE, Ont. LON 1S9
Tel. 925-5793
Fax 925-6224
UNCHAIN YOURSELF
Hydra -Spread frees you from all the
mechanism (and breakdowns) of chain
type spreaders. Manure will not freeze to
our polyethylene box.
Available in 295 bu., 365 bu. and
465 bu. sizes at great prices
N. E.
Hagedorn
& Sons Limited
Paisley 519-353-5642
Established 1928
"Farm Equipment Is
Our Only Business"
12 THE RURAL VOICE
Robert Mercer
Crop protection with a squeeze
Used pesticide container disposal
can be a farm and rural nightmare.
The industry goal has been to cut
crop protection packaging waste by
50 per cent and
that has led to
more use of
bulk, dry
formulations
and re -usable
containers.
Now comes
the latest on
both product
formulation and
packaging. The
formulation is a
gel, the package
a water soluble
plastic and the
initial manufac-
turing for this particular brand for
all North America will be in
Canada.
With registration expected at any
time for the Canadian new gel
formulation, Rhone-Poulenc Canada
expects to start marketing a gel
compound of Pardner for corn
growers in eastern Canada this
coming spring.
The packaging known as Gel -Pak
for the new product is a compart-
mentalized cardboard box with the
water soluble pack in a firm plastic
outer cover. The box and the cover
are disposable in the normal manner
with no restrictions that would apply
to regular pesticide containers. The
actual container of the active ingred-
ient is dissolved into the tank mix
and applied to the field with no
residue, or even problems in the
sprayer filter.
As long as the company can deli-
ver this new formulation and pack-
aging concept to the farm at compet-
itive prices, the idea is good. It is
more safety conscious, more oper-
ator friendly, and can be used with
combinations of one water soluble
bag inside another with a second
active ingredient to give broader
control of weeds and grasses.
One of the unique advantages of
the gel formulation developed and
patented by Rhone-Poulenc is that
should the water soluble parcel be
slightly damaged with a pinprick
type of hole, the gel is firm enough
and elastic enough to plug the hole
for no loss and no spill.
For users of this new technology
the main change is the short wait for
the pouch to dissolve in the water.
The sprayer tank is partly filled prior
to adding the Gel -Pak and the
operator now waits two to three
minutes for the pack to dissolve.
The company does not expect the
request for re -registration to be held
up in the bureaucracy of Ottawa as
the formulation and packaging
change is the very approach that the
government itself has been
requesting of the crop protection
industry. The 15 location tests with
Pardner this spring were completed
under the Research Permit program
of Ag Canada. If there is no
registration delay, the Pardner Gel -
Pak system is scheduled for
introductory marketing in the spring
of 1994.
It is also interesting to note that
in a statement published in the
company's magazine this past June,
Tom Dille, president of Rhone-
Poulenc's Agricultural Products,
indicates that this new gel technolo-
gy has generated great interest from
regulators, competitors and users,
and the plan is to give competitors
an opportunity to use the technology
in return for royalty payments. The
U.S. got fast track regulatory appro-
val for the gel technology. Let's
hope the same applies in Canada.
This application by Rhone-Poulenc
Canada will be an interesting case to
monitor the Canada/U.S. Free Trade
Agreement on the objectives of
harmonization in regulatory proce-
dures. There is absolutely nothing
to stop Ottawa from going ahead
with an approval since the active
ingredient is already approved for
the uses specified. It is just a formu-
lation change to better the environ-
mental side effects of packaging. Is
this also a squeeze play?
On the other side of this FTA
situation is the choice by Rhone-
Poulenc to select Calgary as the
production facility for all North
America. This choice shatters the