The increased levels of precision possible with accurate guidance and autosteer functions has opened up many opportunities for growers to manage seeding operations and traffic within the paddock in ways that were not previously possible. The impact of increased precision and accuracy for spray application has meant that spray operators can use techniques such as inter-row shielded spraying, banded and directed spraying in-crop, and variable-rate application of liquid fertilisers and other crop inputs.

To maintain the accuracy required to adopt many of the techniques possible, there are three widths the spray operator should consider before upgrading any of their farm machinery: the width of the tyre centres, the sprayed width of the boom and the width between the nozzles (nozzle spacing).

The width of the tyre centres is one of the most critical factors for maintaining precise steering and to maintain the position of implements. Wherever possible it makes sense to match the tyre centres of the sprayer and the seeding equipment to the largest piece of equipment on the farm, which is the harvester. The width of the boom can then be matched to the width of the seeding equipment, or exact multiples of this, which will reduce the overall level of traffic and reduce under- or over-applications of sprays and can improve the accuracy of each spray application.