Sprayers adjustment at the workshop thanks to the use of a dedicate software

Abstract

In Piemonte Region, the instrumental adjustment of sprayers is compulsory when the farm comply with sustainable production standards and for this reason draws European subsidies. To ease the task of technicians involved in this assignment, the regional administration - in collaboration with the Information System Consortium (CSI) and the DiSAFA (Torino University) - developed a dedicated on line software as an integration of the current one that is suitable for functional inspection only.
The software is accessible to qualified technicians only and is split into two parts according to the type of sprayer (either boom sprayer or sprayer for bush/tree crops). Data concerning type of crops, treatment, crop canopy (for orchards only), nozzles, operative parameters (pressure, forward speed, applied volume etc.) are initially collected on a paper form and then typed into the software. The last section of the software is dedicated to the sprayer instrumental adjustment and it provides the results achieved with the use of the test benches (optimal boom working height for field crop sprayers and vertical distribution pattern for air assisted sprayers). The result of the adjustment can be print as a report and delivered to the farmer.