The many benefits of spot spraying
The first thing that comes to mind when someone says “spot spraying” is the money savings. “Save up to 90% on chemical usage” is a good incentive for anyone to buy a precision spray technology, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg on the benefits of spot spraying.
It’s a trickle effect in that there are many additional benefits to utilizing spot spraying. When less herbicide is used it makes it affordable to fight weed resistance, reduces the seed bank in the soil, improves soil quality, increases production, saves water, reduces exposure to chemicals, increases efficiency, helps preserve the environment, and ultimately improves the economic stability of the farming industry.
One of the major issues that spot spraying solves is weed resistance. A plant that is exposed to a chemical at a diluted rate only damages the plant but does not kill it. The plant then builds up resistance to that chemical. This is similar to how the human immune system builds up antibodies to illnesses through exposure or vaccines. The more often this happens the stronger the plant becomes making it harder to kill. This forces farmers to use stronger and more expensive chemicals which drastically cuts into a farmer’s profit margin. This is where spot spraying makes all the difference. By spot spraying and only applying 10-20% of a broadcast rate, farmers can now win the battle against weed resistance without cutting into their profit margins.
This trickles down further. Now that farmers are affectively killing weeds, weeds are no longer going to seed. When weeds don’t reseed, there are fewer weeds each pass, which over time reduces the seed bank in the soil. This means that each year fewer weeds come up, farmers use less chemical, and further increase their profits. As less herbicide is applied, soil quality increases. Organisms, such as bacteria and fungi, are crucial in soil health as they aid in cycling nutrients, water filtration, and soil structure. Herbicides reduce the quantity of soil organisms, so by spot spraying to reduce herbicide use, soil organisms continue to strive and improve the overall soil quality. With increased soil quality, ultimately production increases.
Another direct benefit of spot spraying is the drastic reduction in water usage. By utilizing spot spraying, farmers are now only filling their sprayer tanks once or twice a day, which increases overall efficiency. The average farmer fills their sprayer tank six times a day with the average fill time being 25 minutes. That is 150 minutes (2.5 hours) that is not spent spraying acreage. By utilizing spot spraying, a farmer can fill up in the morning before leaving the shop and never stop again until he goes home. In real terms, using the equation 5280 ft per mile x 12mph x 120ft boom ÷ 43560 ft per acre = 174.5 acres per hour can be sprayed which means 436.36 more acres can be covered in a day than by broadcast spraying.
There are other benefits not directly related to weed control. By filling up less, there is a massive reduction in human exposure to chemicals. When a farmer mixes their tank once a day vs six times a day, that is an 85% reduction in risk of exposure to harmful chemicals. This is incredibly important to many farmers who have young family members helping on the farm.
All of these benefits contribute to preserving our environment. Not only is human and soil chemical exposure reduced, but the chemical exposure to wildlife and aqua life is also reduced. Most farmers using spot spraying practices have chemical fallow or no-till farming practices because they only receive 7-20” of rain per year. Farmers who adopt spot spraying and no till farming are preserving the earth’s water table. They also have an advantage of long-term economic stability which is becoming increasingly critical to the farming industry.