We hired Valley Ag out of Whiteson, OR to custom spray a field for us last November. We were carbon-planting Perennial Ryegrass for turf seed production. For those who don’t know, the process of carbon-planting is intended to protect the seed when we apply our burn down and

pre-emergent herbicides post-plant. Typically before you plant a grass seed field, you get as much of a weed sprout as possible to avoid contamination of unwanted grasses in the desired crop. We had a significant sprout of Annual Ryegrass, which was known to have some glyphosate

resistance. This was discussed beforehand and acknowledged that a sufficient rate of glyphosate and surfactant would be needed to obtain adequate control. Valley Ag proceeded to spray 2 qts of glyphosate with no additional surfactant or AMS, along with Kerb, a pre-emergent and

postemergence product labeled for use up to 10 oz/acre. They used 5 oz instead. This of course resulted in little to no control of the already sprouted Annual Ryegrass, which in return forced us to take the entire field out after realizing the failure on their part.

After acknowledging the failed spray, they tried to blame it on the chemical manufacturer. We are now out a minimum of $80,000 in revenue over the next 3 years because of their negligence. Their response? To refund the chemical and application costs along with half of the carbon

bill. Roughly $5,300 worth of product from them. (We still haven’t seen the money.) No compensation for seed stock, ground work, planting costs, or lost revenue. Our family has been giving the company our business for generations. The point of this thread is not for sympathy.

I’m just letting everyone know that Valley Ag of Whiteson, OR not only failed to complete the basic task of killing Annual Ryegrass, but also refused to stand by their work even after acknowledging their failure. I sprayed the field a few months later with 3 qts/acre of roundup

and 1 qt/acre of AMS. I achieved complete control of the Annual Ryegrass within 2 weeks.

Point of the thread?

To let everyone know Valley Ag is a third-rate company who apparently doesn’t give a shit about their loyal customers.