Spray application manual
24 February 2025
Published 24 January 2025 | Last updated 20 January 2025
Optical spot sprayers offer large savings in the amount of product required to spray a paddock. There are now a number of products that can be applied via a dedicated label spot-spray rate (either on the product label or by an APVMA-approved permit), which may assist with controlling difficult-to-kill weeds.
Technology is changing fast in this space, with many additional brands of optical sprayers being recently introduced, and with many more approaching commercialisation. Increasingly, herbicide manufacturers are adding optical spot spray use patterns to product labels.
Unfortunately, optical spot sprayers have too often been used for ‘salvage’ sprays to control escapes from an application by a regular boom spray; this is not the best way to use this technology. As with any spraying operation, timing is everything. Spraying weeds while they are most susceptible is also important for optical spot sprayers, however it is important that the weeds are large enough to be able to be accurately detected by the system.
Before considering purchasing an optical spot sprayer, operators should discuss the options with other owners who have a current model of the machine(s) they are interested in. Operators should also carefully consider the support they are likely to receive from the manufacturer and the dealer or distributor.