Course: SLF 155 Small Farm Maintenance and Operations

Reading & Audio Visual

Sprayer
Sprayer

A Sprayer is used to spray fertilizer or pesticides/herbicides on crops . One of the most important maintenance tasks for this machine is to properly calibrate the mechanics periodically. Calibration involves knowing how much material your sprayer is actually putting on the ground. To test the calibration, fill the sprayer tank to certain measurement mark with water, then get your tractor up to speed and turn on sprayer . Find an appropriate field to test your sprayer and travel a certain amount of area  (for example  1 acre) and  then take another measure from your original mark to see how much water you used in that amount of space.  This tells you the calibration or how much material you are putting on the ground.

Another maintenance task is to test the sprayers tips. To do this turn the sprayer on and put  in water to test tip wear and see if the amount of water flowing through the tip is the same. To measure the water flow you want to catch the water that is coming out of each tip for a certain amount of time (for example for 5 seconds) and measure  it. This number will also help tell you how much material you are putting on the ground  per acre.

Additionally this  tip test will tell you if the tips are putting out the same amount of material (or water in this case). If one is more or less then you need to replace the tip.
You can also hire someone to spray your pastures or fields if you choose not to invest in a sprayer.