Not sure of your situation, but if finances allow, don’t even consider a pull type. Go with a self propelled high clearance sprayer. I have advocated for years that a high clearance sprayer should be the most utilized piece of equipment on the farm, but not for pesticides…for nutrient and biological delivery.

Here are the drawbacks we found with a pull type sprayer:

1) You need to dedicate a tractor to it. Otherwise you are spending countless hours a month hooking/unhooking the hitch, PTO, hydraulics, rate controller and section control electronics, looking for reducers and PTO adapters, etc. . Right now you think you will only use it occasionally, but you will realize how handy it is to jump on and apply your products to your plants having a dedicated unit at the ready.

2) Limitations- A high clearance pull type may sound like it has lots of boom height, but you will always be limited to the height of the plant relative to your drawbar on the tractor. Yes, the plants will bend and move to a point, but what about tall plants like corn or hemp, etc? V6-V8 is probably as high as you dare go before you start damaging the plants irreparably.

3) Crop trampling- This is a smaller one, but I thought I would list it anyways. With a pull type you will always have more crop trampled due to the sprayer tires making their own path when turning, giving 3 paths of trampled crop instead of 2.

4) Unprecedented view. you will see so much more in a high clearance sprayer because you have “front row seats” to the performance. Yes the most important assessment tool we can have is our shadow out in the field, but there is so much to be gained from a “higher perspective” that you wont see on the ground nor in a tractor as the engine and hood are in the way. This part, I feel is often overlooked as hired hands many times run the sprayer and are not “in tune” with the crops.

Anyway, these are just a few of my thoughts that I wanted to contribute from my experiences.

Cheers,

Patrick, Nutriseed Guy.