Whether you’re growing grapes for wine or the table, having a quality dust control program is essential to the health of your vines, your visitors, and your bottom line.
Any business that relies on unpaved roads has experienced the negative impact of excess dust. Left untreated, high levels of airborne dust can cause health hazards to workers, damage to machinery and tools, and considerable harm to plant life and the surrounding environment.
The Issues with Short-Term Fixes
For vineyard and winery operators and owners, the stakes are even higher. Excess dust from maintenance roads or shoulders can affect everything from the quality and quantity of grape yields, to the experience of a guest visiting the tasting room.
By introducing harmful fungus and mold, high dust levels can cause mass infection and fruit rot. Excess dust also increases the likelihood of mite infestation, which can require the use of costly pesticides and compromise grape quality. And for vineyards with tasting rooms, dust can affect the perception of visiting vendors and guests. High levels of dust can also tarnish the high-end experience visitors expect from a wine tasting.
Given the recurring drought conditions across California’s Central Coast and Northern Valley — and as water conservation has become a way of life — dust is only becoming a more pervasive problem for the popular vineyards and wineries across the region. With so many potential risks to a grape farm or vineyard’s bottom line, it’s never been more important to implement an effective dust control program.
The market is crowded with dust control programs offering short-term fixes reliant on harmful chloride-based formulas. These toxic chlorides are corrosive to both vehicles and machinery, and also present considerable risk to your vines and soil. Runoff can result in leaching, loss of nutrients in soil, and lower yields. The chemicals must be applied several times throughout the year in order to remain effective, reintroducing and intensifying these risks with every application.
Fed up with these environmentally-unfriendly and inefficient options, these grape growers and winemakers should consider the turnkey dust control programs and managed services offered by Midwest Industrial Supply, Inc.
A Long-Term Solution That Works
At Midwest, we pride ourselves on creating dust control solutions built for the long-term. We begin by learning everything we can about your site’s specific needs and challenges before developing a comprehensive program that addresses your farm or vineyard’s needs.
And with the use of our unique polymer emulsion formula Soil-Sement®, we can promise more effective results that last longer than those of our competitors. Soil-Sement is specially engineered to stabilize soil by increasing ductility, elasticity, and compressive strength. Effective in any climate, Soil-Sement can withstand extreme heat and UV exposure, as well as wetness and rain. It’s also one of the few products on the market that is independently certified as environmentally safe, non-toxic, and non-corrosive to plants, people, and machinery.
Designed to reduce need with each application and requiring less water than chloride-based alternatives, Soil-Sement has undergone more independent, third party testing and received more approvals than any other dust control product. What’s more, it’s cost-effective, resource-efficient, and ensures your vineyard’s compliance with any and all regulatory requirements.
If you’re concerned about dust-related problems at your vineyard or farm, reach out to Midwest today and let us develop a long-term program that works for you.
