Farmers find latest equipment helps saveFarmers find latest equipment helps save input costs, time, labor
By Ann Marie Edwards, IFT columnist
Wednesday, March 16, 2011 11:29 AM CDT
The latest technology for sprayers is attracting more buyers. In recent years, sprayers have been a hot item at farm shows throughout the United States, and it’s not just customer applicators buying them.
Farmers have been purchasing sprayers to maximize yields and manage input costs.
The Association of Equipment Manufacturers’ 2011 Equipment Outlook report predicts sales of self-propelled sprayers to be up by 2.9 percent in 2011, another positive sales year for sprayers, as was 2010.
One reason for the sales interest may be the new technology that continues to come online with sprayers. Boom control and variable-rate applications are playing a bigger role for farmers. Producers find by investing in a sprayer, they can reduce input costs, and save time and labor.
“AROUND 50 percent of farmers across the country are using some sort of precision ag technology,” says John Fulton, biosystems engineer with Auburn University. “The growth especially in the last five years has been tremendous, and a lot of that has to do with guidance or site-specific technology. Use of boom control has grown exponentially and interest in variable rate application has grown as well.”
Automatic section control (ASC) or auto-swath technology adoption has grown for sprayers in the past few years, he notes. Farmers using this technology have experienced immediate benefits on input savings and a reduction in overlap within fields.
ASC turns sections or nozzles off in areas previously covered, or on and off at headland turns, point rows, terraces, waterways and other areas marked for no-application of pesticides or nutrients. The technology uses a GPS-based guidance system for location of an area pre-determined as a no-application area. The GPS also keeps the implement from overlapping adjacent swaths.
Equipment manufacturers are offering systems that control boom-sections or even individual nozzle selection on ag sprayers. Most manufacturers provide this technology as an option on new sprayers. However, some older sprayers can be retrofitted.
An Auburn University study indicated input savings between 2 and 12 percent with an approximate average of 4.4 percent within a field using ASC. If you’re spending $100,000 on a pesticide bill, multiply that by 4.4 percent for the cost savings. These savings depend on field shape and size with the greatest benefits occurring in small, irregular-shaped fields or fields with conservation management structures.
COSTS FOR the technology generally start around $2,000 but it depends on the existing technology and equipment on the farm. You must have a GPS receiver, spray controller with software that will run the automatic section control and section control mechanism with boom valves that offer individual nozzle control or auto nozzle control and, finally, the electronics and wiring to make it all work. Costs can easily exceed $10,000 if you need all the components or if you’re shopping for a new sprayer.
Many farmers using automatic section control eventually will implement it on their planter, says Fulton, and that also can result in tremendous savings.