2.5.5 Example: Treatment preparation at Château Latour

Policy concerning preparation conditions

Château Latour wanted to create a new facility dedicated to phytosanitary preparations to meet several important objectives:

• To reduce the number of people that come into contact with the products and the health risks for employees during the preparation process
• To improve the homogenization of treatment mixtures
• To save time and facilitate the preparation process

The facility

The 95 m2 phytosanitary preparation facility includes:

• A suspended controlled mechanical ventilation system
• A concrete floor with a 1% slope and drainage holes to avoid any outflow of polluted water from the building
• 3 tanks with a capacity of 7 m3 (7,000 L), each equipped with a level indicator
• The tanks are set in metal grating to reduce spillage
• 3 scissor lift tables embedded in the floor (one for each tank) to facilitate the pouring of phytosanitary products into the tanks
• Each tank is equipped with a three-blade stirrer, a canister rinser with a pressurized water outlet, a canister drainer, an outlet at its lowest point for filling sprayers and rinsing water, as well as a circular product return system to improve stirring and homogenization
• Each tank is equipped with a control board
• A synoptic display panel for the entire network/circuit

Operation

The building and its equipment

The tank's capacity is sufficient to prepare enough spray mixture for a 35 ha treatment. The tanks are filled with water by means of a valve in each tank. A control panel directs the water into the tank selected by the operator. The phytosanitary products are placed on the lifting tables to the left of each tank. The control panel to the right of each tank raises the table as required by the operator. This eliminates the need to lift heavy weights, the risk of dropping or spilling liquid from the containers, and the risk of pain/injury to the operator when pouring the products. The same control panel enables the three-blade stirrer and the return pump to be switched on. In this way, the homogenization quality is improved due to the stirrers in the treatment tanks. Once the homogenization is considered satisfactory by the operator, the valves can be switched on to allow the preparation to flow to the sprayers outside the building. The valves of the three tanks can be switched on simultaneously allowing the filling of four tractors at the same time. The system is designed so that any tank can fill any sprayer. In this way, the preparations can be different from one tank to another, which makes it possible to adapt to the needs of the vineyard.