OT-Company sprayed wrong field

fightfire · May 10, 2011

Ok, noticed tracks in my 10 acre alfalfa/timothy field this afternoon. Realized that adjacent field (bare-going into beans)had no tracks...see where I'm going with this?
Turns out that the chemical company was supposed to spray/burndown field...the bean field. Fortunately they have insurance. I was planning on plowing under the hay field next year, but depending on it for this year. Planned on seeding hay in part of the bean field as a replacement...guess my plans got moved up!
Gonna at least ask for them to fert/seed the replacement (smaller) acreage...what sounds reasonable for the loss of this years hay?

brian(MN) · May 10, 2011

Mistakes happen, and they have insurance for this. Wait until you cool down and then have a talk with the company. If they are an honest company they will to do good on it. They wiped out your alfalfa for the year. I don't know that much about alfalfa, maybe they will provide seed the new field for you. Just approach it with a cool head is all I can say.
Brian

Fordfarmer · May 10, 2011

Has happened a couple times locally over the last 2-3 years, only it was Roundup used on conventional corn. In those cases, company that did the spraying (or their insurance) paid for the lost crop, using expected yield x current cash corn price to determine amount owed.

Clodbuster · May 10, 2011

They killed a crop that takes time to get going and will need to replace your crop for at least a whole season. Don't tell them you were going to tear it up as it will hurt your claim. If you catch someone doing work for you that you did not order, you have some responsibility to stop them. If you don't see them doing it, all fault goes on them. Hope you gave them a map with the correct field noted before they came out to spray.

jackinok · May 10, 2011

Dont want to make it worse for you ,but do you know exactly what they sprayed?you may have not only lost this years ,but may have to wait awhile before you replant.I know there was a big flap around here a couple years back,where gardeners spread hay out for mulch that had been sprayed and it killed everything.I really dont do a lot of spraying,so i'm not up on the reuse times and things,but ive heard of farmers haveing problems changing crops because of the residue.I dont know how long that lasts,but you may want to check before you spend the money to replant.

Anonymous-0 · May 10, 2011

In my experience roundup dosen't kill alfalfa. At my farm in SWND I have a 9 acre field that got sprayed on accident. I keep this area as my pheasant hatchery. The guy that did it paid me cash rent for that year and the next year, absent the weeds and grass, the alfalfa came back so strong that I combined it. The next year the native grass made a come back. Now it is better than before it was sprayed.

David G · May 10, 2011

The company should pay for the lost crop plus replanting expenses. I would bet they will have no issue doing this.

fightfire · May 10, 2011

Not a problem with the cool down...wife and I both understand that mistakes can be made and losing your temper just slows you down from moving forward.
Being stuck at the firehouse for the next 24hours, my wife will be handling the initial face-to-face contact (they have talked via phone with profuse apologies) tomorrow afternoon. At this point we believe that the first thing is to get seed in the ground...will use a section of the unsprayed bean field to establish alfalfa/timothy w/cover of oats so that some hay can be made this year. Only then will we be able to talk about what has been lost in production/sale.
Sprayed field will be plowed and (dependent of type of spray) planted bean or corn.
At least that is how we envision it...tomorrow will be very telling.

John T Country Lawyer · May 10, 2011

Your situation is not that hard to correct, the company who made the mistake will probably make it right with no problems. Its a tougher case if the company say spread fertilize on your farm field which you didnt order. Your first reaction may be YAYYYYYYYYY free fertilize buttttttttt theres a legal doctrine called "Unjust Enrichment" whereby you could be ordered to pay at least part if not all the cost, but that makes for bad public relations with the fertilize company and I doubt they would pursue such an action depending on the economics and other factors. By the way if youre there and notice it going on you best let the trucker know versus hiding, it has to do with an equitable doctrine known as "clean hands" or he who seeks equity must do equity. If you go into equity court with clean hands you have a much better channce of prevailing.

Nuff said

Ol John T The Country Lawyer

fightfire · May 10, 2011

Good advice. However I was 25 miles away scaring some folks who had never hung from a rope...75 feet off the ground!+++that sounded bad, didn't it? Let me try this again, I was teaching a rope rescue class in the next county!
Son texted me and said he saw a spray buggy pulling out of the hay field- damage done.
I think it'll all work out. Just wanted to check on my rights/responsibilities as this is a first for us. I know 10 acres of hay is not a big thing for them-but it is if you wanna feed your own critters. Last word is...Ours wasn't the only mistake that day- another hay field (1 yr old)...the operator (or whoever did the manifest) must have had a bad Monday for sure!

Ed in Northern VA · May 10, 2011

Sounds like they should drug test their employees

Anonymous-0 · May 10, 2011

A couple years ago we had some wheat that was accidently sprayed. It was too late in the season and did some damage to the crop. Of course the sprayer said he did not do it, but the next day he was out and sprayed the field next to it that he was supposed to spray for the neighbor. He made every excuse he could think of to try to get out of it. They also sprayed an alfalfa field that took a long time to get established. Of course he said he didn't do that either, but he finally asked how much he owed us. Think we got close to $6000 and the check came from him, NOT the insurance company. Suppose it was cheaper to pay then turn it into insurance company and risk a higher premium.

fixerupper · May 10, 2011

It can happen easily. The custom sprayers go over tens of thousands of acres every spring in neighborhoods they know nothing about. We have harvested the wrong wheat field. It happens.

However, the work order should have stated "bean stubble". If it listed just the field location and nothing else, the custom sprayer wouldn't know the difference. The chemical supplier needs to be very descriptive when describing the field to the sprayer operator.

The last time I had my Roundup beans custom sprayed, the sprayer driver shut the boom of too late at a couple of waterwayss and didn't even turn it off for a couple of others. The company gave me free grass seed but I had to re-seed it myself. Then the next year I saw in the paper a picture of the sprayer operator, holding an award for spraying the most acres per day. Made me mad so I bought my own sprayer and I've never been sorry. Jim

JDseller · May 10, 2011

I don"t know where you are located but hay here in North-east Iowa is going to be tight this year. Too many acres torn up to row crops. The local hay sale is going strong still. Usually prices are dead once the grass greens up.

I would want the value of the lost hay. Are you not going to have to buy hay now????? Also like others have stated, you don"t know what was sprayed. Most sprays at this time of year have more than Roundup in it.

Damage: Lost hay value + the cost of reseeding a new field for next year. That is how mis-sprayed corn is handled, value of the crop at harvest, just without the replant cost.

Funny that they sprayed the wrong field. Almost all the spray rigs around here have GPS with field mapping. He should have known that he was in the wrong field. The one I road in made all kind of noise if you tried to spray the wrong field.

Hotflashjr · May 11, 2011

This happened a few years ago to a cranberry grower here in MA. It wasn't a plow under and grow another crop kind of deal though. It took years for the vines to start producing again and there was a million dollar + lawsuit. Not saying that was the right way to go, but they were compensated for each crop that was to be grown and didn't.

tjdub · May 11, 2011

> Just wanted to check on my rights/responsibilities as this is a first for us.

I would be willing to bet that their insurance company will have a formula for figuring out the liability. Usually these formulas are tilted toward the person getting paid because insurance companies don't want to fight in court.

> I know 10 acres of hay is not a big thing for them-but it is if you wanna feed your own critters.

As for the alfalfa damage, have you considered drilling Sudex (BMR Sorghum-sudangrass hybrid)into the burned down alfalfa? Here in SE MN I get about the same value out of the 2 cuttings of Sudex balage as 3 cuttings of alfalfa. It works great in an emergency hay crop since you can't plant it until the soil gets up to 60F anyway (June here). Also, the seed is pretty cheap at less than $20/acre. The expensive part about growing it is the nitrogen application because it's very N-hungry, but following alfalfa that won't be much of a concern. You do have to wrap the bales in plastic to make balage though, it's pretty much impossible to make dry hay out of (where I am anyway).

fightfire · May 13, 2011

Thanks to all for the replies! I appreciate you taking the time and giving me your insight/advice- makes me feel that I have good information and am more able to be reasonable and realistic in searching for solutions.
Here's how it worked out- sprayer took absolute responsibility- misunderstood directions and didn't call and clarify with the neighbor/renter. He fell over himself apologizing and was anxious to make things right.
Wed. night there was a disk in the original beanfield working down a "new" hayfield, fertilizer truck followed. Thursday morn a tractor and drill laid down the alf/timothy/orchard grass- of course at their expense. That should get me enough stubble hay for my animals.
Thurs afternoon the wife met with them again and they offered her the entire projected loss of income. Will meet with them the first of the week to finalize.
They were also so grateful for the demeanor of wife and I- but like I said before, Getting irate only slows you down from moving forward! Also, being nice to people sometimes makes it easier for them to want to go the extra mile for you.
Thanks again!

OT-Company sprayed wrong field

fightfire

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brian(MN)

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Fordfarmer

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Clodbuster

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jackinok

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Anonymous-0

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David G

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fightfire

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John T Country Lawyer

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fightfire

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