Key points

• Shielded sprayers are generally designed to prevent droplets from depositing onto a crop, and can reduce drift by more than 90 per cent compared to a conventional boom

• Products applied under shielded sprayers are applied as a banded application

• Banded applications require accuracy to uniformly deliver the product to the intended target area

• The choice of appropriate nozzle types for banded applications may be limited

• Using automatic rate controllers for banded and directed applications requires careful consideration of the plumbing set-up and the inputs into the rate controller