Strip spraying in row
Strip spraying in row crops is slowly finding its place in practical farming. This method is particularly profitable for sugar beet and potatoes. It is closely observed and much discussed by many practical farmers.
Especially in regions where the fields are level, state-of-the-art RTK track control allows for returning to the same tracks more and more precisely. This still is the biggest challenge with regard to strip spraying with a field sprayer.
To take some workload off the driver when strip spraying, we used the winter months to optimise a camera GPS-based solution even further. With these approaches the steering axle is controlled and the nozzle is kept exactly above the row by means of readjustments. To check the precision of the camera control even in difficult conditions like slopes or heavily curved rows, is part of the joint research project OptiKult we already presented in terraHORSCH.
Experiences
The experiences of recent years with strip spraying show that you should not consider it to be an isolated system. It rather is another solution to reduce crop care costs. This means: If you decide to apply herbicides in sugar beet by means of strip spraying, it should not become the norm that all herbicide chemicals have to be applied in a strip. In a year like this, the combination of area spraying and strip application of herbicides is rather more interesting. Wet conditions during and after sowing were not the best start for a good and successful early mechanical weed control in sugar beet. In addition, in many regions it was wet and cool. Under these weather conditions, an all-over first herbicide application could achieve a good efficiency. The second and possibly third applications can then be carried out by means of strip application. With regard to the final herbicide applications, this year it might be enough to only drive between the rows with a hoe. Such a strategy, too, allows for a considerable reduction. Already for the tests of the past years carried out by different test partners, the combination of strip and all-over spraying resulted in clean sugar beet populations. The hoe as the last post-emergence treatment shortly before the rows close can definitely have a positive effect.
Band spraying ↔ Strip spraying
Various reasons, e.g. in the sector of registration and licensing, required a more precise differentiation of traditional band spraying installed in hoeing devices and with a sprayer.
Band spraying is assigned to the hoeing technology and the target area distance amounts to a maximum of 25 cm.
Band spraying methods with a target area distance larger than 25 cm are called strip spraying.
Conclusion
All options of different, efficient application methods – all-over, strip or in the future spot application – in combination with mechanical weed control should neither be considered nor used as a matter of course. However, in our row crops they can contribute to the reduction of herbicide inputs. The challenge for the future is to optimally include the most appropriate application method into the herbicide strategy.
The project partners
