Spitfire skills lands Hants farmer with iPad

UK - June 18, 2012

Dexterity on the computer, rather than agronomy skills, has won Peter Cheyney, of Herriard, Hampshire an iPad in a competition run by leading agrochemical manufacturer Dow AgroSciences.

Mr Cheyney is the fourth generation farming Hyde Farm, Herriard, near Basingstoke. He entered the online game, developed by Dow AgroSciences to promote its new cereal herbicide Spitfire. The challenge was to ‘shoot down’ the most weeds and Mr Cheyney’s nimble fingers ensured he won the national competition.

However, Spitfire is more than a computer game for Mr Cheyney who has use the actual product on parts of his 300ha. The product, a mixture of fluroxypyr and florasulam, had proved effective in controlling weeds – especially cleavers – in his winter cereals this year.

“I have used Dow AgroSciences Starane XL for some years, as cleavers can be a real problem. This year, despite the adverse weather conditions, Spitfire worked really well applied in spring to take out cleavers, groundsel and chickweed,” said Mr Cheyney.

Mr Cheyney will now be looking for some useful farming applications for his new iPad, rather than playing more games.