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Generating Herbicide Effective Application Rate Maps Based On GPS Position, Nozzle Pressure, And Boom Section Actuation Data Collected From Sprayer Control Systems
1J. D. Luck, 2A. Sharda, 3S. K. Pitla, 2J. P. Fulton, 4S. A. Shearer
1. Universithy of Kentucky
2. Auburn University
3. University of Kentucky
4.

The application of pre- and post- emergence burn-down herbicides (i.e., glyphosate) continues to increase as producers attempt to reduce both negative environmental impacts from tillage and input costs from labor, machinery and materials.  The use of precision agriculture technologies such as automatic boom section control allows producers to reduce off-target application when applying herbicides.  While automatic boom section control has provided benefits, pressure differences across the spray boom resulting from boom section actuation can lead to off-rate application errors.  This project focuses on quantifying accumulated herbicide application for three fields located in Central Kentucky.  GPS coordinates were collected along with nozzle pressure data (at 13 nozzle locations) at one second intervals as the sprayer traversed the study fields.  The method previously developed by Luck et al. (2009) was used to calculate coverage areas for the control sections along the spray boom in ArcMap.  Based on laboratory tests, nozzle flow rates were calculated from the nozzle pressure data which was then incorporated into ArcMap to determine the amount of herbicide applied to the fields.  The goal of this project was develop distribution maps to better understand the effects of boom section control on herbicide application accuracy.

Keyword: precision agriculture, pesticide application, variable-rate technology, precision spraying, no-till farming